IB Psychology: Last blog entrieshttp://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog
InThinking IB Psychology: www.thinkib.net/psychology2018 InThinking Educational Consultants. All rights reserved.Asking questionshttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/21592/asking-questions
Thu, 01 Sep 2016 00:00:00 +0000<p><img alt="" src="files/psychology/images/earthquake-amatrice.jpg" style="float: left; width: 398px; height: 270px;" />One of the most important skills that we can help our students to develop is the skill of &quot;asking questions.&quot; This is fundamental to the inquiry process. When students ask good questions, they demonstrate how they are applying past learning to understanding a new situation. By interacting with students as they form questions and challenging them to define their terms, explain what they really want to know and justify why their question is important, we are not only preparing them for extended essay, but we are also developing curiosity and honing their research skills.</p> <hr class="hidden" /><br /> <p>Asking students to &quot;think like a psychologist&quot; about current events is a safe way to get them to start generating questions. Using &quot;visible thinking techniques,&quot; students should &quot;wonder&quot; aloud, but in the framework of psychology. It is also a way to promote international mindedness. </p> <p>Last week most of us were stunned by the images coming out of Amatrice, Italy. The earthquake that struck at 3 am left a trail of destruction which was difficult to comprehend. Over 250 people died in this earthquake.</p> <p>I asked my students to pretend that they were part of a psychological team that has heard that the Italian government is awarding grants to psychologists to study anything related to the Amatrice earthquake. Students were put into pairs to come up with research proposals. They then had to state their research question to the class. Below is a sample of the type of questions they came up with.</p> <div class="yellowBg"> <h2><span >Sample research questions</span></h2> <p>1. To what extent did the aid workers develop PTSD? Was there any trend as to who got it? Could we protect future aid workers from getting PTSD?</p> <p>2. Why do people feel &quot;imaginary&quot; aftershocks? What is going on inside the brain?</p> <p>3. Do men or wormen experience more &quot;survivor&#39;s guilt?&quot;</p> <p>4. Will this earthquake increase anxiety in people liiving in other areas of Italy that have earthquakes? Or will it instead increase rationalization that their home is safe?</p> <p>5. How will the survivors explain what happened? Will they blame themselves? The government? God? Does it matter to their mental health whom they blame?</p> <p>6. Do jounralists have nightmares after covering such stories? If not, why not?</p> <p>7. To what extent will people remember this news story compared to other news stories? Does the personal nature of the news story make it easier to remember details, or are the memories less accurate?</p> </div> <p>As you can see, these second year students were able to generate some interesting questions based on their understanding of psychology. Although we did not go any further with this activity than presenting questions and and speculating as a class what the answers could be, students could also then rate the questions and then choose the one that they would choose to &quot;fund.&quot; A good exercise in critical thinking while also keeping students aware of the world around them.</p> <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <em>current events, critical thinking, earthquake</em></p>https://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/21592/asking-questions#1472688000Changes to the EEhttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/21518/changes-to-the-ee
Fri, 26 Aug 2016 00:00:00 +0000<p><img alt="" src="files/psychology/images/change.jpg" style="width: 361px; height: 240px; float: left;" />As we all await the publication of the new psychology curriculum, we have also been given the new extended essay criteria. The first set of essays to be marked under the new standards will be submitted in May 2018. So, what are the key changes? Obviously, there will be a new assessment rubric - and there will be new pages of Inthinking devoted to the assessment rubric over the next few weeks. However, there are also some more general changes that we should be aware of.</p> <hr class="hidden" /><br /> <div class="yellowBg"> <h2><span >The Introduction</span></h2> <p>There are some significant changes to the way that the introduction <strong>must </strong>be written. Students have always been required to include their research question, discuss the theoretical framework of their topic and explain why their research is important. However, now there will be some more precise requirements.</p> <p>1. The research question must be written as a question. Students who write: <em>This paper will evaluate drug treatments for schizophrenia</em> will not longer earn credit. They should write: <em>This paper will explore the question: To what extent are L-dopa treatments effective in the treatment of schizophrenia? </em></p> <p><em>2. </em>Students must indicate in the introduction which theories and studies they will use and how. Admittedly, the extent to which the candidate must explain the &quot;how&quot; is not yet clear to me, but I am hoping to get clarification on this soon.</p> <p>3. Students must explain how the argument will develop throughout the paper. In other words, after they have laid out the framework and the justification for the question, they need to explain their plan for the paper.</p> </div> <div class="greenBg"> <h2><span >Presentation</span></h2> <p>There are two big changes for presentation, as well as more clarity for students. First, two reminders:</p> <ul> <li>Footnotes may <strong>not </strong>be used for clarifications. Examiners are told not to credit anything that is written in footnotes. If there is a definition of a term, it must be written in the body of the paper, not in a footnote. Often students with high word counts use footnotes to get around the word count. If this happens, students may lose marks for failure to clarify key terminology, even though they have it in the footnotes.</li> <li>There should be no appendices attached to the EE. These are not read by examiners.</li> </ul> <p>The key changes are:</p> <ol> <li>Students will no longer write an abstract. The outline of the paper will now be included in the introduction.</li> <li>Citation will no longer be assessed. If it is inadequate or not representative of the work, the candidate may be penalised for academic dishonesty.</li> </ol> <p>It is often the case that a large number of sources that are listed in the References are not included in the body of the work - and that the works cited in the text are not listed in the References. This may be sent for academic dishonesty which may mean that the student would not get his or her diploma. How exactly the IB will handle this is unclear. However, what it means is that although students will no longer be penalized for &quot;errors&quot; in applying a citation standard, lack of application of a correct system or the failure to match sources with citations, may result in more serious penalties.</p> </div> <div class="yellowBg"> <h2><span >Engagement</span></h2> <p>As part of their final product, students will now be required to submit a set of reflections on the process of researching and writing the EE. Students need to write three formal reflections: one early on in the process, an interim meeting and then after the final viva voce. IB refers to these as &quot;Planning, Process and Product.&quot;</p> <p>If you are using Managebac, on the EE page in the right-hand column, there is a tab for the &quot;Planning and Progress Form&quot; where students can enter their reflections.</p> <p>These reflections are assessed. This replaces the &quot;Holistic&quot; section of the assessment. The reflections must show critical thinking and evaluation of their process - not simply a description of what they have been doing. The guide makes the following suggestions for the focus of these reflections:</p> <ul> <li>The approach and strategies they chose, and their relative success;</li> <li>The Approaches to learning skills they have developed and their effect on the student as a learner;</li> <li>how their conceptual understandings have developed or changed as a result of their research;</li> <li>setbacks they faced in their research and how they overcame these;</li> <li>questions that emerged as a result of their research;</li> <li>what they would do differently if they were to undertake the research again.</li> </ul> </div> <div class="pinkBg"> <h2><span >Assessment</span></h2> <p>Finally, there are changes to the actual assessment of the paper. In the past, there were 11 criteria by which students were assessed. Now there will be only <strong>five criteria</strong>. A more in-depth discussion of the assessment criteria will appear soon on the site - but for now, the key changes are:</p> <ul> <li>The first criteria will be &quot;<strong>Focus and Method</strong>&quot; which will replace criteria A, B and C (research question, introduction and investigation). It will be worth 6 marks.</li> <li><strong>Knowledge and understanding</strong> will remain, but it will now be worth 6 marks, rather than 4. Correct use of terminology is now included under this criteria. Also, the appropriate use of sources is now included under this criteria.</li> <li><strong>Critical thinking</strong> is now worth a significantly larger proportion of the overall grade. It is worth 12 marks. It includes several of the former criteria: reasoned argument, analysis, conclusions. It is important that the question also be evaluated in lieu of the research - and not simply the research itself.</li> <li><strong>Presentation</strong> - the focus of this criterion moves away from citation and is more focused on the layout and structure of the paper. Headings continue to be required, page numbers and a table of contents. It remains worth 4 marks.</li> <li><strong>Engagement</strong> - as stated above, students must submit their reflections - and teachers must submit a final report. This document is worth 6 marks of the final grade.</li> </ul> <p>The total number of marks for the new EE is 34 marks (rather than 36 marks). The new markbands have not yet been determined. They will be set after the first assessments in May 2018.</p> <p>Keep an eye on the site for more detail explanations and examples for the various criteria. All coming in the month of September.</p> </div> <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <em>extended essay, new curriculum</em></p>https://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/21518/changes-to-the-ee#1472169600Interpreting IA comments: Discussionhttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/21339/interpreting-ia-comments-discussion
Thu, 11 Aug 2016 00:00:00 +0000<p><a href="files/psychology/images/confused-male-2.jpg"><img alt="Courtesy of stockimages at FreeDigitalPhotos.net David Castillo Dominici" src="files/psychology/images/confused-female-2.jpg" style="float: left; width: 361px; height: 240px;" /></a>This is the final of four blog postings on the meaning of IA comments. These comments focus on the &quot;discussion&quot; section of the report. </p> <p>The discussion section is very similar for the HL and SL - with the exception that HL must compare their results to all studies in the introduction. The SL candidates only have one study - the original - to which they need to compare their results.</p> <p>In addition, in the current curriculum students do not earn any marks for discussing the strengths of their research. Once again, this is a way that students may use up a lot of their word count for naught. It is important that they took full advantage of the word count and not include information that is not assessed - regardless of how you or I may feel about the importance of that information.</p> <hr class="hidden" /><br /> <div class="yellowBg"> <h2><span >Comments about discussions</span></h2> <p>The following comments are about the discussion sections. There are different comments appropriate for HL and for SL.</p> <p><strong>Comment 1</strong>: In the discussion, the candidates&#39; results must be directly compared to the results of the original study.</p> <p><em>This is a comment for both SL and HL students. It is best in the discussion to begin with a direct comparison of these results. What may account for the higher averages? The lower standard deviation? The fact that your results are insignificant? A higher standard deviation in the Loftus &amp; Palmer study, for example, could be attributed to a younger sample with less experience in driving. </em></p> <p><strong>Comment 2:</strong> In the discussion, the candidates&#39; results must be directly compared to the results of the background theories/studies and the original study.</p> <p><em>This is a comment only for HL candidates. In addition to comparing their results to the original study, they also need to make reference to the other two studies outlined in the introduction - as well as linking the results to the theory which is being explored. </em></p> <p><strong>Comment 3:</strong> The focus of the discussion was too much on the behaviour of the participants and not on the design and procedure of the experiment.</p> <p><em>This is when students write: The participants were not paying attention. They seemed not to care about the experiment and therefore their responses were not very accurate. </em></p> <p><em>Although this may have some merit, this is still how the participants behaved. Studying human behaviour is not easy! The assessment rubric only credits discussion of the design, sampling technique, materials and the procedure. Writing about the behaviour of the participants is not a valid limitation for this assessment. </em></p> <p><strong>Comment 4:</strong> The discussions should be more developed -&shy;‐ focusing on limitations and how future modifications could address those limitations.</p> <p><em>Students need to indicate limitations of their study. As mentioned before, discussing strengths earns no credit. In addition, for each limitation, there should be a specific modification suggested for a future replication. It is recommended that students have 2 - 3 limitations in their discussion. </em></p> <p><strong>Comment 5</strong>: Limitations should be directly linked to the study and not simply generic limitations of experimental research.</p> <p><em>Simply using generic answers that are &quot;always true&quot; is not going to earn more than the low markbands. For example, &quot;This study lacked ecological validity.&quot; &quot;This study had a small sample size.&quot; &quot;This study is difficult to generalize.&quot; The limitations should be specific to the study that was undertaken. </em></p> <p><strong>Comment 6:</strong> Mistakes made by the candidates are not valid limitations of the study.</p> <p><em>Sometime students write something like this: &quot;One of the problems was that in the first condition we forgot to read the standardized instructions. In a future replication, we would make sure that this is not the case.&quot; or &quot;We didn&#39;t test the recording device before and the sound quality was too poor for many of the participants to understand. In the future, we would use a better sound system.&quot; These are not limitations; they are mistakes. When students make mistakes, they need to redo the experiment. This will be much more emphatically stated in the new curriculum. Please make sure that students understand the difference between a mistake and a limitation.....</em></p> <p><strong>Comment 7:</strong> The report must end with a clearly stated conclusion with regard to the aim of the study.</p> <p><em>The report should end with a short paragraph that recaps the findings of the study. </em></p> </div> <div></div> <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <em>IA, internal assessment, discussion, feedback</em></p>https://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/21339/interpreting-ia-comments-discussion#1470873600Interpreting IA comments: Resultshttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/21338/interpreting-ia-comments-results
Thu, 04 Aug 2016 00:00:00 +0000<p><a href="files/psychology/images/confused-male-2.jpg"><img alt="Image courtesy of stockimages at FreeDigitalPhotos.net" src="files/psychology/images/confused-male-2.jpg" style="float: left; width: 361px; height: 240px;" /></a>This is the third of four blog postings on the meaning of IA comments. These comments focus on the &quot;results&quot; section of the report. </p> <p>Remember that there are two different approaches to the results section in the IA. In SL the focus is only on descriptive statistics. In HL, the focus is on both descriptive and inferential statistics.</p> <p>In the current IA, it is important to remember that the SL candidates do not get any credit for doing inferential statistics or for hypothesis testing. By including this, students are wasting a very limited word count.</p> <p>This will change in the new curriculum where both SL and HL candidates will be carrying out hypothesis testing and applying inferential statistics.</p> <hr class="hidden" /><br /> <div class="yellowBg"> <h2><span >Comments about results</span></h2> <p>The following comments are about the results sections. There are different comments appropriate for HL and for SL.</p> <p><strong>Comment 1</strong>: Results should include a measure of central tendency, a measure of dispersion and an appropriate graph.</p> <p><em>It is often the case that a measure of variance (or dispersion) is missing from this section. It is important when planning this section that nominal data is avoided so that students can fulfill this requirement. It is also important that there be a graph in this section. If the graph shows the differences between monolinguals and bilinguals on the Stroop test - this is not the aim of the study and thus is not an appropriate graph. </em></p> <p><em>In addition, the raw data must be in an appendix so that the calculations and the graph may be verified.</em></p> <p><strong>Comment 2:</strong> Descriptive and/or inferential statistics were not appropriately applied.</p> <p><em>This is the case when one of the following is true:</em></p> <ul> <li><em>The applied statistics are not appropriate for the level of data.</em></li> <li><em>The applied statistics are not appropriate for the design.</em></li> <li><em>The applied statistics are not documented and/or are incorrectly calculated.</em></li> <li><em>The statistic is inappropriate for the distribution or sample size.</em></li> </ul> <p><em>It is important to remember that in the case of ordinal data, the median is usually the most appropriate statistic. It is also important to remember that there are requirements for using the t-test - that you should indicate which version of the t-test is being used. </em></p> <p><strong>Comment 3:</strong> The choice of descriptive and/or inferential statistics must be explained.</p> <p><em>This is very much related to the previous comment. The rationale for choosing each of the statistics must be clearly explained. </em></p> <p><strong>Comment 4:</strong> There should be only one graph that clearly reflects the aim of the study.</p> <p><em>This is related to comment 1. The graph should reflect the aim of the study. In addition, standard deviation should not be graphed as bars on a bar graph. The appropriate way to do this is to use error bars in order to indicate variance. </em></p> <p><strong>Comment 5</strong>: Graphs must be clearly labeled.</p> <p><em>This means that there should be a title that clearly reflects the aim or hypothesis. The x and y axes must both be labeled. They should not simply be labeled as &quot;condition 1&quot; and &quot;condition 2&quot;, but instead it should be clear which bar is which, without having to read the report. The y axis must indicate units of measure - for example, km per hr.</em></p> <p><strong>Comment 6:</strong> Graphs should show the comparison of the two conditions; raw data should not be graphed.</p> <p><em>Our students are almost exclusively doing bar graphs. There is no case in this IA where every data point should be graphed. When students do this, it is as though though they have not done a graph. They earn in the lower markband.</em></p> <p><strong>Comment 7:</strong> Conclusions drawn from the statistical test were not accurate.</p> <p><em>For SL students, this is when they draw a conclusion about a hypothesis (which they should not have stated) or they state that their results are signficant, simply based on descriptive statistics.</em></p> <p><em>For HL candidates, this means that the p value is not correctly interpreted. </em></p> </div> <div></div> <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <em>IA, internal assessment, results, comments, feedback</em></p>https://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/21338/interpreting-ia-comments-results#1470268800Interpreting IA comments: Methodologyhttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/21337/interpreting-ia-comments-methodology
Thu, 28 Jul 2016 00:00:00 +0000]]>Interpreting IA comments: Methodologyhttps://www.thinkib.net/cache/blog-thumbs/4/21337-1469012702-thinkib.jpghttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/21337/interpreting-ia-comments-methodology<p><img src="https://www.thinkib.net/cache/blog-thumbs/4/21337-1469012702-thinkib.jpg" alt="Interpreting IA comments: Methodology" /><br /><br /> <div class="yellowBg"> <h2><span >Comments about methodology</span></h2> <p>All of the following comments apply to both SL and HL candidates.</p> <p><strong>Comment 1</strong>: The independent and dependent variables must be appropriately operationalized.</p> <p><em>First, it is important that in the Design section, the IV and the DV are clearly identified and operationalized. In other words, what are the different levels of the IV - and how will be the DV be measured?</em></p> <p><em>One of the mantras that students should know is &quot;Materials are not variables.&quot; So, a &quot;list of words&quot; or &quot;the verb in the question&quot; is not actually the IV. The IV should be something like &quot;Whether objects are schematic or aschematic for an office setting&quot; or &quot;the intensity of the verb.&quot; Then the levels should be be described. For example, &quot;the intensity of the verb will be &quot;low&quot; in group A, with the use of the word &quot;bumped&quot;; in group B, they will have a high intensity verb, with the use of &quot;smashed.&quot;</em></p> <p><em>It should be clear how the DV will be measured - for example, participants will be asked to estimate the speed that the car was moving in kilometers per hour. They will be asked to estimate the speed of the car from 0 to 200 km per hour.</em></p> <p><strong>Comment 2:</strong> The choice of design needs to be explained.</p> <p><em>First, of course, the candidate needs to identify the design. There are only two that are used for this assessment: independent samples (also known as a between groups design) and repeated measures (also known as a within-groups design). They should describe the design and then explain why it was chosen. </em></p> <p><em>It is important that the explanation be directly linked to the experiment. If the argument is that independent samples was used to avoid confounding variables - this should be explained. For example, we used an independent samples design so that we could use the same list of words with both groups. If we had used two different lists, we cannot guarantee that the words themselves were not why participants remembered more words from one list than from the other. </em></p> <p><em>Defining the design is not an explanation. For example: &quot;We used repeated measures so that we could test each indivivual against themselves.&quot; </em><em>This is simply a definition of the design and does not explain why it was used in this particular study.</em></p> <p><strong>Comment 3:</strong> Candidates need to clearly explain and document how ethical considerations were addressed.</p> <p><em>Ethics need to be clearly addressed in the design section. For example, how was consent obtained? How were the debriefings done? </em><em>Was the experiment approved by an ethics board at your school? </em> <em>Simply listing all ethical considerations is not enough for full marks. </em></p> <p><strong>Comment 4:</strong> The choice of sampling method needs to be explained.</p> <p><em>The sampling method is often confusing for students. They should identify the one method that was used. They should also explain how it was done and why this method was chosen. Students cannot get marks for idenfying the sampling method if they don&#39;t describe how they did it. Simply stating that they used a &quot;sample of opportunity&quot; is not enough. How was this obtained? And why was this chosen as the preferred method?</em></p> <p><strong>Comment 5</strong>: Procedures need to be more clearly written to allow for replication.</p> <p><em>Finally, the procedures should be clearly written. It not important whether it is written as a paragraph or as a bulleted list. However, all important elements should be there. It is important to describe how materials were designed or how they were chosen. It is also important to indicate how the participants were randomly allocated to conditions. The directions should include important information that shows how the procedure was standardized - for example, how long were participants given to write down their responses.</em></p> <p><em>In addition, appendices should be referenced. For example: The directions (see app iii) were read aloud to each group. </em></p> </div> <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <em>IA, internal assessment, feedback, methodology, participants, design, procedure</em></p>https://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/21337/interpreting-ia-comments-methodology#1469664000Interpreting IA comments: Introshttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/21336/interpreting-ia-comments-intros
Thu, 21 Jul 2016 00:00:00 +0000<p><img alt="" src="files/psychology/images/confused.jpg" style="float: left; width: 360px; height: 240px;" />Now that all the grades are out and you have received your component scores, the typical question is &quot;why was I moderated down on my IA&#39;s?&quot; There are several possible reasons for this:</p> <p>1. The most basic reason is that you were too lenient in your marking. Many of us tend to struggle with being objective with our own students. I also get moderated down a few marks every session. </p> <p>2. There were errors in understanding of the assessment rubric. This will be addressed below.</p> <p>3. Moderation of the moderator. The final reason could be that your own moderator was also moderated down. In that case, your sample would be affected. This will change in the future with emarking.</p> <hr class="hidden" /><br /> <p>The following blog posting is the first of four posts on how to interpret the feedback that you receive on your IA&#39;s. The IB is more and more using a standardized set of comments, with the goal of making communication clearer. However, some moderators do not use these comments, so you may have received much more personalized comments than these. The four blog postings will address comments about introductions, methodology, results and discussion.</p> <div class="yellowBg"> <h2><span >Comments about introductions</span></h2> <p>The following comments may be made about introductions to the IA.</p> <p><strong>Comment 1</strong>: SL candidates included sections that are only for the HL candidates.</p> <p><em>This is a significant comment because it means that some of the text that was submitted was not assessed. SL candidates should <strong>not</strong> write a review of literature. This only uses up word count and it is not assessed. It also makes the introduction less focused for the SL student. The SL student should have only the study that is being replicated - and an explanation of the background theory upon which it is based. In addition, there should be a clearly stated aim, but no hypotheses.</em></p> <p><em>This is not only important because of word count. In the discussion, references to the &quot;hypotheses&quot; or to research that is not the original study is also not credited as it is not part of the assessment rubric.</em></p> <p><em>The good news? The IB is getting rid of the SL/HL distinction in all courses for the IA. This means that in the future, there will be no difference in SL and HL IA&#39;s - and so this comment will eventually go away....</em></p> <p><strong>Comment 2:</strong> The study to be replicated must be clearly described and explained in the introduction.</p> <p><em>The introduction must have a clearly described study which will be replicated. This means that the study should be described in terms the original aim, procedure and results. It is rather important that actual results be outlined and not simply a general statement of findings. The goal in the discussion is to compare the actual results. If you cannot find the actual results, then it may be best to use a different study where you can actually access the results. Even in the HL introduction, this must be clearly outlined. </em></p> <p><em>The point that it must be &quot;explained&quot; means that the study should be linked to some theory. This is then helps to lead to the justification of the hypothesis. For example, in an introduction to Loftus &amp; Palmer&#39;s classic study, it would be expected to see something about the nature of reconstructive memory and the way that schema distort memory. This does not mean more research, but it means that the research must be clearly described in its theoretical context. </em></p> <p><strong>Comment 3:</strong> Studies in the introduction should be explicitly linked to the study to be replicated.</p> <p><em>This is a comment for <strong>HL only</strong>. It helps to make sure that the first paragraph defines the theory upon which all of the studies will be based. It is then important that for each study, that it is clearly linked back to the theory. This should be done explicitly in the introdution and not left up to the reader to figure out.</em></p> <p><strong>Comment 4:</strong> The introduction was undeveloped and lacked adequate background research.</p> <p><em>This is most commonly used for HL candidates. The rule of thumb is three pieces of research, with the final piece of research being the study that will be replicated. &quot;Undeveloped&quot; is a rather global term that may indicate that the studies were not well described or that there was no clear theoretical framework for the introduction. </em></p> <p><strong>Comment 5</strong>: The aim of the study must be clearly stated.</p> <p><em>This is true for both HL and SL candidates. The aim should indicate the research question for the study. It should be very specific, including the target population. For example: </em>The aim of this study is to determine whether the intensity of the verb in a question about a car accident will have an effect on the estimation of speed made by international, bilingual high school students<em>. </em></p> <p><strong>Comment 6</strong>: The hypotheses were not clearly stated or operationalized.</p> <p><em>If this is the case, it means that the variables were not stated in a way that indicated the levels of the IV or how the DV will be measured. Also, hypotheses must predict an outcome. </em></p> <p><em>An operationalized hypothesis may look like this: Participants that are asked tp estimate the speed at which the cars were going when the accident happened using a higher intensity verb like smashed, will estimate a higher speed in km per hour than participants that are asked using a lower intensity verb, such as contacted. </em></p> </div> <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <em>IA, internal assessment, introductions</em></p>https://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/21336/interpreting-ia-comments-intros#1469059200Infographicshttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/20386/infographics
Thu, 11 Feb 2016 00:00:00 +0000]]>Infographicshttps://www.thinkib.net/cache/blog-thumbs/4/20386-1455184152-thinkib.jpghttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/20386/infographics<p><img src="https://www.thinkib.net/cache/blog-thumbs/4/20386-1455184152-thinkib.jpg" alt="Infographics" /><br /><br /> <p>The program can be used to create infographics on the origins of depression, an outline of a study, strengths and limitations of methods, ethics - you name it. The goal can be revision or informing the larger community. And, of course, they are easily shared among students. Helping students to actively participate in the revision process rather than simply reading and re-reading their notes will make them more in control of their learning and develop confidence in their understanding of the learning objectives. And it will also create some beautiful material for your bulletin board....</p> <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <em>revision, infographics</em></p>https://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/20386/infographics#1455148800Choosing studieshttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/20345/choosing-studies
Sun, 24 Jan 2016 00:00:00 +0000]]>Choosing studieshttps://www.thinkib.net/cache/blog-thumbs/4/20345-1453721495-thinkib.jpghttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/20345/choosing-studies<p><img src="https://www.thinkib.net/cache/blog-thumbs/4/20345-1453721495-thinkib.jpg" alt="Choosing studies" /><br /><br /> <p>When students do this, they often describe the study literally the same way each time. They start off with &quot;One study in the BLOA is HM&quot; or &quot;One study in the CLOA is HM&quot; - and then they tell his story and the findings of the study. And they don&#39;t answer the question. This auto-pilot approach often leads to low marks. The use of the same study is actually something that is rather tricky. Students need to be able to &quot;reframe&quot; the study to fit the question. So, for the above example:</p> <p>1. Localization of function: the study needs to focus on the function of the hippocampus. This includes the transfer of information from short-term to long-term memory, as well as assisting in the retrieval of information.</p> <p>2. Ethics: The question should first outline an ethical consideration - for example, informed consent. A full explanation of the role of the hippocampus is not relevant here. The focus of the response should be on what informed consent means in this case and why it is problematic.</p> <p>3. Research methods: This essay would presumably focus on the case study method. In this response, the study should be described in terms of method. The examiners would like for things like the use of structured interviews, observational studies, psychometric testing, interviewing his wife and family - in other words, how the method was triangulated over time to gather rich data, which is the definition of a case study.</p> <p>When students write a description of a study on an exam, they create a schema of that description. That schema can then impair their ability to see that study from a different perspective. So, yes, students may use the same study to answer different questions - however, they need to practice this and understand that the demands for the questions are different, so their approach to the description and explanation of the study also has to be different.</p> <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <em>exam preparation</em></p>https://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/20345/choosing-studies#1453593600The Hawthorne Effecthttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/15068/the-hawthorne-effect
Sun, 22 Nov 2015 00:00:00 +0000]]>The Hawthorne Effecthttps://www.thinkib.net/cache/blog-thumbs/4/15068-1448187805-thinkib.jpghttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/15068/the-hawthorne-effect<p><img src="https://www.thinkib.net/cache/blog-thumbs/4/15068-1448187805-thinkib.jpg" alt="The Hawthorne Effect" /><br /><br /> <p>Reactivity is when individuals alter their performance or behavior due to the awareness that they are being observed. Reactivity is not limited to changes in behaviour in relation to being merely observed; it can also refer to situations where individuals alter their behavior to conform to the expectations of the observer. An <em>experimenter effect</em> occurs when the experimenters subtly communicate their expectations to the participants, who alter their behavior to conform to these expectations. The Pygmalion effect occurs when students alter their behavior to meet teacher expectations. Stereotype threat is one other example of reactivity.</p> <p>The Hawthorne Effect is a specific example of reactivy; however, it is not a highly appropriate evaluation strategy for most psychology experiments.</p> <p>Here is a typical example of the misuse of the term:</p> <p ><em>A 1978 study, to establish whether cerebellar neurostimulators could mitigate the motor dysfunction of young adults with cerebral palsy found that the Hawthorne Effect adversely affected the findings. Objective testing showed that all of patients reported that their motor functions improved and that they were happy with the treatment.</em></p> <p>The results are more probably affected by expectancy effect, social desirability effect or conformity effects - not by the Hawthorne Effect. The Hawthorne Effect refers to the tendency of some people to work harder and perform better when they are participants in an experiment. It is difficult to see how these individuals are &quot;working harder and performing better&quot; in the above study.</p> <p>It is important for us to recognize that the original studies that gave the &ldquo;Hawthorne Effect&rdquo; its name have long been discredited.</p> <div class="yellowBg"> <h4><span ><strong>The original study and its limitations</strong></span></h4> <p>Between 1924 and 1932 Elton Mayo carried out a series of experiments at the Hawthorne Works near Chicago. The company had commissioned studies to determine <em>if the level of light within their building affected the productivity of the workers</em>. Mayo found that hourly output rose when lighting was increased, but also when it was dimmed. It did not matter what was done; so long as something was changed, productivity rose.</p> <p>He noticed that this effect occurred when any variable was manipulated. He concluded that it happened because the workers automatically changed their behavior. They increased output, simply because they were aware that they were being observed. He argued that the workers felt important because they were pleased to be singled out and that this factor alone accounted for any changes in behaviour.</p> <p>If we only know what is outline above, we do not have a good understanding of the study. By today&#39;s standards, the study is fatally flawed. Here are some things to know about the original study.</p> <ul> <li>Only five workers took part in the study, and two were replaced partway through for gross insubordination and low output.</li> <li>The group&rsquo;s performance didn&rsquo;t always increase.</li> <li>There were many confounding variables, such as the use of incentive pay and rest breaks. In fact, participants in the first experiment ranked &ldquo;earnings&rdquo; among the top three reasons why they preferred the test room over regular working conditions.</li> <li>In some cases workers received productivity reports and often worked towards known productivity goals, which may have influenced them more than the trivial changes in working conditions.</li> <li>Increased production was measured by the average output per day. This led to many misleading statistics. For example, lighting was always changed on a Sunday, when the plant was closed. When it reopened on Monday, output rose compared with Saturday, the last working day before the change, and continued to rise for the next couple of days. But a comparison with data for weeks when there was no experimentation showed that output always went up on Mondays. Workers tended to work harder for the first few days of the working week regardless of the lighting, before hitting a plateau and then slackening off.</li> <li>Another of the original observations was that output fell when the trials ceased, suggesting that the act of experimentation caused increased productivity. But experimentation stopped in the summer, and it turns out from the records of production after the experiments that output tended to fall in the summer anyway. This is when most of the employees would take their holiday in order to avoid the heat of the factory.</li> </ul> </div> <div class="greenBg"> <h4><span >The Hawthorne Effect today</span></h4> <p>Many modern researchers consider the Hawthorne Effect no more than a myth. What is important for us as teachers is to realize that this theory is perhaps not very helpful in understanding most research.</p> <ul> <li>The Hawthorne effect has to do with &quot;improvement of productivity.&quot; The fact that a person changes their behaviour simply because they are in an experiment is not the Hawthorne Effect.</li> <li>It is not correct to say that any manipulation of an IV can cause improvement in one&#39;s behaviour. This is also not the finding of the Hawthorne experiments.</li> <li>Changes in the dependent variables in the original study took place over many months and even years. The Hawthorne Effect is not meant to be applied to short-term exposures to changes in the IV. The actual studies looked at the manipulation of several variables over time. If the Hawthorne Effect is, in fact, valid, then it is much more complex than students realize.</li> </ul> </div> <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <em>Hawthorne effect, demand characteristics, reactivity, evaluation</em></p>https://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/15068/the-hawthorne-effect#1448150400Student access - a nice upgradehttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/19967/student-access-a-nice-upgrade
Sat, 21 Nov 2015 00:00:00 +0000]]>Student access - a nice upgradehttps://www.thinkib.net/cache/blog-thumbs/4/19967-1448084862-thinkib.jpghttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/19967/student-access-a-nice-upgrade<p><img src="https://www.thinkib.net/cache/blog-thumbs/4/19967-1448084862-thinkib.jpg" alt="Student access - a nice upgrade" /><br /><br /></p> <p>I hope this post helps a few more to use the student access.</p> https://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/19967/student-access-a-nice-upgrade#1448064000Lightening the load...https://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/19479/lightening-the-load
Sat, 22 Aug 2015 00:00:00 +0000<p><img alt="" src="files/psychology/images/stack.jpg" style="width: 309px; height: 240px; float: left;" />One of the struggles of being a teacher is the endless pile of marking. Students need to work on their writing in order to clearly articulate the response to the exam prompts, but teachers end up spending many a weekend reading piles of responses that have the same ideas and arguments, but different sentence structures. The constant marking often leads to frustration and burn-out in the teaching profession. So, we have to learn how to &quot;work smart.&quot;</p> <p>The first thing we have to realize is that we are not teaching &quot;essays.&quot; We are teaching much smaller skills - for example, stating a position, writing topic sentences, summarizing a study and analyzing a study. When we give an essay, we are asking students to do all of these things - and we are giving students feedback on all of these things. I think that we can do it better.</p> <hr class="hidden" /><br /> <p>I think that we can teach students these skills discretely - and that then means shorter, tighter writing with focused feedback. Although I do not advocating never writing a complete essay, I also think that students will only improve if they write something every week. However, students could write less and potentially learn more.</p> <p>Over the next few weeks, I will be posting several examples of such strategies under &quot;<a href="psychology/page/15096/skill-development">skill development</a>.&quot; But in order to introduce some ideas to get you thinking about how you teach writing, here are some simple tips and strategies.</p> <div class="greenBg"> <h2><span ><strong>Strategies for teaching writing</strong></span></h2> <ul> <li>Give students structures. For example, tell them that when describing a study, they should always include the sentences: The aim of the study was.... The researchers concluded that....</li> <li>Give students a topic sentence of a paragraph and ask them to finish the paragraph. This can either be done as a class, or by having students pull a topic sentence out of a hat. Topic sentences can be very general or very specific. For example, &quot;Although research shows that memory can be distorted, there is also research that shows that memory can be incredibly accurate.&quot; or &quot;Neisser &amp; Harsh&#39;s research challenged Brown &amp; Kulik&#39;s original findings.&quot;</li> <li>Alternatively, assign an essay and ask students to only submit three topic sentences. Each topic sentence should be a direct response to the essay prompt.</li> <li>Give students a poorly written essay (from a past student or write one yourself) and have them rewrite the paragraph without changing the example that was used or the nature of the argument.</li> <li>Do an &quot;essay lottery&quot; in which you put three or four essay prompts from the unit in a hat and have students draw a question to answer. This doesn&#39;t lighten the load, but it at least varies it. It also is then great for peer editing as students are asked to think about assessing and giving feedback on a question which they were not asked to prepare.</li> </ul> </div> <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <em>writing, assessment</em></p>https://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/19479/lightening-the-load#1440201600A meal planhttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/18799/a-meal-plan
Mon, 06 Apr 2015 00:00:00 +0000<p><img alt="" src="files/psychology/images/meal-from-Theresa.jpg" style="width: 280px; height: 210px; float: left;" />One of the struggles with teaching IB Psychology is that in addition to all the research and theories that students need to master, we also have to teach them how to communicate their ideas in written form in a limited amount of time.</p> <p>Recently, one of my students said to me, &quot;Should I use the meal plan?&quot; She seemed to think that I knew what she was talking about, but I didn&#39;t. Then she told me what the acronym stood for: Main point, evidence, analysis, link.</p> <p>Brava. So, below is an example of what this might look like for a typical paragraph in response to an essay question for the cognitive level of analysis.</p> <hr class="hidden" /><br /> <div class="yellowBg"> <h2><span >A CLOA MEAL plan</span></h2> <p>The following is an example of how to apply the acronym to the question: <em>Evaluate schema theory.</em></p> <p><strong>Main point</strong></p> <p><em>What are you going to write about with regard to the question that is asked?</em></p> <p>There is empirical research that shows that schema have an effect on what we remember.</p> <p><strong>Evidence</strong></p> <p><em>What is the study, theory or other evidence that you will use to illustrate your main point?</em></p> <p>One study that shows this was carried out by Anderson &amp; Pitchert.......</p> <p><strong>Analysis</strong></p> <p><em>What should we consider when thinking critically about the evidence that you just provided?</em></p> <p>In spite of the fact that the study shows that when individuals are primed with regard to a specific schema they are more likely to remember information that is congruent to that schema, there are some limitations to the study....</p> <p><strong>Link</strong></p> <p><em>Looking back at your paragraph, how does this link back to the question: Evaluate schema theory?</em></p> <p>One of the strengths of a theory is that it is testable and that there is empirical support. </p> </div> <div class="greenBg"> <h2><span >Teaching writing</span></h2> <p>Now that I have this handy acronym, where do I go from here? One of the most important goals I have is to communicate as effectively with my students as possible without having to write too much on their papers. Using this acronym, I think that there are two possible approaches:</p> <p>Student oriented: Have the students write their essays in this format, especially when starting out. For each paragraph, have them submit a paragraph that is broken up by the headings above. If that is too complicated for them, have them either color code their work with blue being main point, red being evidence, etc. Or have them note on the essay what they think is there main point, evidence, etc by using initials in the margin.</p> <p>Teacher oriented: The easiest way to give feedback on this would be for the teacher to identify each of the points in the margin: M, E, A, L. It would also be good to focus on only one aspect of the paragraphs - for example, the links back to the question. Then either have students give feedback only on that aspect in peer editing dyads, or that might be the only written feedback you give them on that particular assignment.</p> <p>Nothing like a cool acronym.</p> </div> <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <em>writing</em></p>https://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/18799/a-meal-plan#1428278400Revision timehttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/18786/revision-time
Mon, 30 Mar 2015 00:00:00 +0000<p><img alt="" src="files/psychology/images/Revision-time.jpg" style="width: 220px; height: 159px; float: left;" />If you are like me, this week I am wrapping up the course and getting ready for revision. Revision for me is always one of the most difficult times of the year. It is the time of the year when students realize how much they have forgotten and they need to develop their own strategies to get ready for the big day. I need to take a deep breath and remind myself that it is like this every year - and it gets better as we get closer to exams.</p> <p>But when I talk to students and teachers, there seems to be some misinformation out there about the exams. So, I thought it would be good to provide some clarifications and tips for exam preparation.</p> <hr class="hidden" /><br /> <p>Tip 1. <strong>Don&#39;t play the game of trying to guess the questions</strong>. There is a common belief that the IB is &quot;not allowed&quot; to ask the same questions that were asked last year. This is not true. There is only a limited number of questions for each level of analysis/option and it is possible that a question that was asked last year could be asked again this year - either as an SAQ or as an essay question. A few years ago the IB accidentally sent out the previous year&#39;s exam for history. So students had the same questions as the previous May. Although it was a mistake, it was still considered a valid examination as students are supposed to be prepared for all learning outcomes.</p> <p>Tip 2. Even though some students may wnat to cut down on the amount of content they need to prepare, <strong>they must prepare at least two of the three sections of each of the options</strong>. Some people believe that the exams are supposed to ask one question from each of the three areas of learning for each option - for example, in human relationships, that would be prosocial behaviour, interpersonal relationships and violence. This is not true. It could very well be that there are two questions from one area of the option and then one question from another. Preparing only one section is a very risky strategy....</p> <p>Tip 3: <strong>Prepare 2 - 3 studies for each essay question</strong>. <strong>One study for each SAQ</strong>. Another myth is that &quot;more is better.&quot; In reality, many students who pack their essays with studies do not devote enough time to the command term. In SAQ responses, credit is only given for the first study which is used to answer the question. The others are not read.</p> <p>Tip 4: <strong>Think globally</strong>. For the essays, if the command term is discuss, students should be thinking about the bigger issues with the question and not just evaluating research. So, &quot;Discuss research on conformity&quot; should not just evaluate studies, but discuss the problems of carrying out conformity research. This may include the need for deception, the problems of doing it in a naturalistic setting, questions about the role of culture and gender, the question about why so many people don&#39;t conform. Lacking this global approach to questions will most probably result in mid-range marks for critical thinking, depending on the command term.</p> <p>Tip 5: And finally, many schools ask if it is ok for students to prepare just one Level of Analysis for Paper 1. Of course, they would still need to know one study or theory for each SAQ question, so this is still a lot of information. If students only prepare one level of analysis, this will mean that they have to answer the essay question, come what may. So, I do not necessarily recommend this strategy, but for many students, this is a choice that they make in order to manage all of the studying that they have for exams.</p> <p>My last piece of advice that I give my students is that they may not fall in love at this point in the year. If Fischer is right, all the wrong neurotransmitters for assessment will kick in and things could go terribly awry.....</p> https://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/18786/revision-time#1427673600Domino causality https://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/18492/domino-causality-
Sun, 01 Feb 2015 06:30:00 +0000]]>Domino causality https://www.thinkib.net/cache/blog-thumbs/4/18492-1422805440-thinkib.jpghttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/18492/domino-causality-<p><img src="https://www.thinkib.net/cache/blog-thumbs/4/18492-1422805440-thinkib.jpg" alt="Domino causality " /><br /><br /> <p><strong>Domino causality</strong> is defined as cause and effect relationships where the effects become causes and there is a sequential unfolding of effects over time. Often by looking at the simple cause and effect relationship, students miss just how complex things really are.</p> <p>In the text, she gives several examples. When discussing what would happen if a plant species were to disappear, students tend to focus on the animals that feed on that plant and do not look at how the decrease in the population of that animal due to a shortage of food would have an effect on other populations. Being able to see the chain of reactions is important for a more complex understanding of science.</p> <p>So, how does this fit into psychology? We have several cases of domino causation which often get students trapped in overly simplistic understandings of psychology. For example, the argument that serotonin deficits cause depression. In this argument, one has to try to determine what are the steps that lead from a serotonin deficit to depression? What does a serotonin deficit do? How does one get a serotonin deficit? When we look at modern research on depression, we find that one of the effects of high levels of cortisol is a lower rate of serotonin production. Does this then cause depression? So, should we be trying to manage stress to lower depression instead of treating low levels of serotonin? Understanding the complexity of the relationship encourages us to ask more complex questions.</p> <p>Another example is the study by Michael Meany. Many students conclude that a lack of motherly grooming leads to problems with spatial memory. It is actually much more complex than that. The mother rat&rsquo;s nurturing behavior leads to the activation of the glucocorticoid receptor gene (GR, also known as NR3C1), resulting in lowered stress response. The stress of being taken away from the mother leads to <em>down-regulation</em> of the expression of the GR &ndash; that is, the expression of the gene is decreased. This epigenetic effect then leads to an inability for the mice to regulate levels of glucocorticoids. Long term high levels of cortisol lead to hippocampal cell death. This cell death, in term, has an effect on the rats&rsquo; ability to recall spatial information.</p> <p>Getting students to ask what might be the steps that lead up to what they consider to be a cause of a behavior &ndash;or to have them consider what effect the effect may have on the behaviour of the individual &ndash; is another good way to help our students develop their critical thinking skills. By recognizing the many steps that lead to an ultimate effect, they can realize that there are many points at which an intervention could change behaviour. This also means that the &quot;first cause&quot; is not a &quot;direct cause&quot; of the effect and may actually lead to several other effects. It might make our heads hurt to think about it, but being able to identify domino causality will help students discuss the complex relationships between variables in the study of behaviour.</p> <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <em>causality, critical thinking, cause, effect, variables, research, theory</em></p>https://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/18492/domino-causality-#1422772200Those darn bulletin boardshttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/17406/those-darn-bulletin-boards
Sun, 31 Aug 2014 03:30:00 +0000<p><img alt="" src="files/psychology/images/APA-poster.png" style="width: 406px; height: 250px; float: left;" /><br />If your school is like our school, our classrooms are blessed with bulletin boards on the walls of our classrooms. If you are like me, you may wonder what to do with these classroom anachronisms that take up so much wall space. The following activity is what I have done to get students to start one of the most important skills that they will develop in high school &ndash; asking questions.</p> <p>The APA has three great posters that <a href="http://www.apa.org/ed/precollege/undergrad/pcue-posters.pdf">you can print out and put on those bulletin boards</a>. The posters&rsquo; theme is: Psychology &ndash; it&rsquo;s more than you think! The three posters claim that psychologists can prevent violence, help people become healthier and help stop the destruction of the environment.</p> <p>After such bold statements, there are two sample questions on each poster &ndash; for example, <em>why do some people refuse to recycle</em>?</p> <p>At the end of our first full week of school, I had my first-year students start asking some questions. We looked at the posters and the questions that they asked. I then put them into groups and asked them to brainstorm questions that a psychologist would ask relevant to the claim on the poster. So, for example, the health group came up with questions like: <em>What causes depression? Why don&rsquo;t people exercise? What causes eating disorders</em>? Although not bad for the first week of class, you can see the problem. The questions are &ldquo;safe.&rdquo; They don&rsquo;t take risks and they are too broad. It was clear that students needed some &quot;scripts&quot; to help them write better questions.</p> <p>Choosing one of the posters (health), I gave them a model question. For example, <em>Do pet owners have better mental health? </em>(actually, it appears they do &ndash; see <a href="psychology/page/7713/allen-et-al-1999">Allen et al, 1999</a>). Instead of a causation question, which is what students seemed to gravitate toward, we are now asking correlation questions. Another example &ndash; <em>How can we get people to purchase Fair Trade products, even though they are more expensive? </em> This question asks about changing a behavior, stating both what we would like to see and what we currently observe to be people&#39;s behaviour. Once they have a model question, then students can use that model to generate more questions for their topic. It may appear a bit formulaic to some, but we are laying schema which we hope will transfer to asking questions in other situations.</p> <p>At the end of it all, I had pretty pieces of colored paper and felt-tip pens (that were still brand spanking new) to write their best questions and put them up on the bulletin board around the posters. Question-asking is a fundamental skill for any psychologist or researcher. As teachers, we often assume that students should be able to ask great questions by the time they start IB. But this requires training and practice. If we can help students to ask good, researchable questions, it is not only good for EE, but a valuable life skill, regardless of what they do after graduation. That bulletin board may get a lot more use this year&hellip;.</p> <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <em>research, introduction, psychology, EE, extended essay, hypothesis, hypotheses</em></p>https://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/17406/those-darn-bulletin-boards#1409455800Closing the relevance gaphttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/17318/closing-the-relevance-gap
Sun, 17 Aug 2014 03:30:00 +0000<p><img alt="" src="files/psychology/images/mind_the_gap-logo.jpg" style="width: 391px; height: 260px; float: right;" /><br />It&rsquo;s the beginning of another school year in Prague. The question is always &ldquo;how do you get started?&rdquo; Do you say, &lsquo;Today we are going to begin the IA, so let&rsquo;s go over the rubric?&rdquo; Do you ask them a mundane question like &ldquo;What is psychology?&rdquo; Why not get them to begin a habit of critical thinking from day 1?</p> <p>David Perkins uses the term &quot;relevance gap&quot; to describe the &quot;lack of connection&quot; between what students are learning in their classes and the world they live in. It can be easy for us as psychology teachers to just assume that our class is &quot;highly relevant&quot; to students since they study their own behaviour as well as the behaviour as others. But as we all know, students can be very passive and simply &quot;learn for the test.&quot; So, how do we get them to think critically and close that gap.</p> <p>One of the ways to do this is to look at the events of this summer. Three stories that have dominated the news have been the Ebola scare in West Africa, the death of Robin Williams and the riots in Ferguson, Missouri in the United States.</p> <p>Start off by having the students tell you what they know about one &ndash; or all three &ndash; news stories. If they don&rsquo;t know much about the story, have them do some quick searches to find out what has happened, or show them a summary of the events on a website like BBC news.</p> <p>After they are familiar with the story, it is time to think critically. Give each student a piece of scrap-paper and ask them to &ldquo;think like a psychologist.&rdquo; What questions would you like to ask about how the people in this story behave? Give them up four to five minutes and ask them to brainstorm as many questions as they can. Encourage them to think outside the box and to shoot for about 10 questions.</p> <p>Many students will find this task difficult if they are not used to generating questions. This is good practice for EE and it is a way to get them to think for themselves about what psychologists do.</p> <p>After the time is up, have the students choose their &ldquo;best question.&rdquo; Have them write it on a separate piece of paper. Then have them give their paper to someone else in the room. You can do this, for example, by having them give their paper to the person who is sitting &ldquo;three seats away from you&rdquo; or &ldquo;a person with the same eye-colour as you&rdquo; &ndash; whichever way you like.</p> <p>Then give students about five to eight minutes to do some &ldquo;flash research&rdquo; with an attempt to answer the question. At the end of the time you specify, go around the class and have students do the following:</p> <p>Share one answer that they found to the question that they received.</p> <p>Identify the source that they used to answer the question.</p> <p>If they couldn&rsquo;t find any answer, what was it about the question that made it difficult to research?</p> <p>You may also want to add your own two cents at the end of any discussion, but this is a great way to close the &ldquo;relevancy gap&rdquo; and help students to see that what we are studying has real value in helping us to understand what it is going on in the world around us.</p> <p>For more on the idea of the &quot;relevance gap&quot; - here is a great short video by Shari Albright. It gives us a lot to think about what we do in our classrooms. I hope that it will be an inspiration for the rest of the school year.</p> <p><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/jaSrny6Z6rU" width="420"></iframe></p> https://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/17318/closing-the-relevance-gap#1408246200Twofers - or maybe threefershttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/16619/twofers-or-maybe-threefers
Sat, 29 Mar 2014 03:57:00 +0000]]>Twofers - or maybe threefershttps://www.thinkib.net/cache/blog-thumbs/4/16619-1396087983-thinkib.jpghttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/16619/twofers-or-maybe-threefers<p> <img src="https://www.thinkib.net/cache/blog-thumbs/4/16619-1396087983-thinkib.jpg" alt="Twofers - or maybe threefers" /><br /><br />For most of us in the Northern hemisphere, we are wrapping up our courses and it is time to start revision. Here is a simple idea of how to get started.</p> <p> The key to starting revision is the simple mantra: reduce, reduce, reduce. From all the notes, handouts, bookmarks and other materials that we have collected over the past two years in order to learn the basics of psychology, it is now important to get rid of the excess and only focus on what we still need to learn for the exam.</p> <p> When reducing, you should keep in mind:</p> <blockquote> <ul> <li> <span ><em><strong>If it is not on the exam, take it out of your study material</strong></em></span>. There are many interesting things that we talk about that are tangents to the course&#39;s learning objectives. They should not be part of your study notes.</li> <li> <span ><strong><em>If you know it, take it out of your study material</em></strong></span>. Nothing makes us feel better than to revise something that we already know. It makes us feel good about ourselves and may give us a false sense of security. It also uses valuable study time without giving us any gain.</li> <li> <span ><em><strong>Less is more</strong></em></span>. Being able to economize on the number of studies and theories that you need to know will lower stress and make your study time &quot;smarter&quot;.</li> </ul> </blockquote> <p> In order to do this last task, my classes do a &quot;game&quot; (it&#39;s not really a game) called the &quot;Twofer Game.&quot; This is how it works.</p> <p> First, the teacher reads out the learning objectives for the Biological Level of Analysis. (This is just an example. Of course it could be any of the units you have studied - oh, and it doesn&#39;t have to be the teacher). After reading out each objective, students have one minute to write as many studies/theories that come to mind which could be used to answer the objective. Please be sure to consider research that you have done in your options. The more links you can make between the options and the core, the fewer studies you will have to remember!</p> <p> After all of the learning objectives have been read, then students are broken into groups of 3 - 4 people. In each group, the goal is to look for &quot;twofers&quot; - that is, a study that could be used to answer more than one objective. It counts as a twofer if it can be used for any two learning objectives within the biological level of analysis - or if it can be used in another level of analysis or option. For every twofer, the team gets one point. If you can get a threefer, you get 2 points. If you get a fourfer (and if you can say that word), you get 3 points. I think you get the picture.</p> <p> The important thing to remember in this activity is that it is important not to add a lot of new research that you don&#39;t already know. So, if you know the role of the hormones oxytocin (Baumgarten) and Melatonin (Rosenthal) really well, even if testosterone could be used in several places in the curriculum, you might want to stick to what you already know.</p> <p> If you do this task for each of the levels of the analysis and the options, with or without the teacher, you should be able to reduce, reduce, reduce - and make the amount of content that you are trying to master for the exams much easier to manage.</p> <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <em>revision</em></p>https://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/16619/twofers-or-maybe-threefers#1396065420Mock speed datinghttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/16146/mock-speed-dating
Mon, 13 Jan 2014 14:05:00 +0000]]>Mock speed datinghttps://www.thinkib.net/cache/blog-thumbs/4/16146-1387311299-thinkib.jpghttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/16146/mock-speed-dating<p> <img src="https://www.thinkib.net/cache/blog-thumbs/4/16146-1387311299-thinkib.jpg" alt="Mock speed dating" /><br /><br />Aren&#39;t we all looking for ways to liven up revision either for mock exams or for the end of the year? I find revision to be one of the most uninspiring parts of the year and I am always trying to find new ways of livening it up. When I help my students to revise for mock exams, we are in the middle of the Human Relationships unit. So, I thought, why not try to kill two birds with one stone? Why not do a bit of speed dating?</p> <p> In order to do this, you really need to have some gender balance in your classes. If not, then you could always do &quot;speed job interviews&quot; - but I have a feeling it might not be as effective or as relevant to your unit. But then, you could tie it to the interview process.</p> <p> The most important thing to decide is, who is interviewing whom.</p> <p> To do this, choose one of the two genders and ask them to prepare a question from a unit that is being revised. If it is only one unit, then all of the girls should meet (secretly, of course) to decide which learning objective they will ask their perspective date. If there is more than one unit - for example, all three levels of analysis for a mock Paper 1 - then have the girls break into teams and do the same. Each should have only one learning objective and should ask a single question - for example, &quot;Could you describe one study for me that shows Social Learning Theory?&quot; or &quot;Could you talk to me about the strengths and limitations of Schema Theory?&quot; </p> <p> Then it is time to set up the room. They should be far enough apart from each other that they do not disturb each other. Once the speed dating begins, they get 2 minutes at each table. They should engage in a conversation about the question until the teacher/timer announces that it is time to move on. After the whole round has happened, then it is time to switch the genders. Now the boys get to ask the questions. What you do with the question of which person is their chosen partner is up to you. But regardless, it may show them that knowing your stuff about psychology can be rather attractive indeed...</p> <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <em>revision,mock exams,human relationships,dating</em></p>https://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/16146/mock-speed-dating#1389621900Parenting without Bordershttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/16051/parenting-without-borders
Mon, 02 Dec 2013 16:48:00 +0000]]>Parenting without Bordershttps://www.thinkib.net/cache/blog-thumbs/4/16051-1384730450-thinkib.jpghttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/16051/parenting-without-borders<p> <img src="https://www.thinkib.net/cache/blog-thumbs/4/16051-1384730450-thinkib.jpg" alt="Parenting without Borders" /><br /><br />Every once in a while you find a psychology book that really gets you thinking. As a teacher new to the development option this year, I have been doing a lot of reading. A retired colleague of mine recommended Christine Gross-Loh&#39;s &quot;Parenting without Borders&quot; to me over the summer. It is one of those books that I think that every school should have in its library. It is a book that provokes a lot of discussion about why parents do what they do - and how culture plays a key role in who we are.</p> <p> Christine Gross-Loh is an American who raised her children in Japan for several years. This sparked her interest in culture. She also has done research in Germany, Sweden, Finland, Korea and China in preparing for this book. She challenges the idea that there is a &quot;natural parenting style&quot; and discusses the role that culture norms play not only in parenting, but in the school system, play groups and society&#39;s attitude about children. </p> <p> Some of the chapters include &quot;Buy, Buy, Baby&quot; in which she looks at what (and how much) parents buy their children and the effect that this has on a child&#39;s sense of creativity. &quot;Global Food Rules&quot; looks at the question of whether children are &quot;picky&quot; with their food by nature, or whether this is a reflection of America&#39;s goal that their children be highly individualistic. &quot;Feeling Good&quot; looks at the question of self-esteem and whether Americans worry too much about at the risk of lowering a child&#39;s resiliency. And &quot;Quality Time&quot; looks at the way that Americans tend to structure their children&#39;s lives with activities. She argues the value of unstructured play is lost to the detriment of a child&#39;s sense of autonomy, risk-taking and self-regulation.</p> <p> The book cites research that you can read to go deeper into the topics that she presents. But overall, the book is a personal journey of a bi-cultural parent. It is an enjoyable read that reminds us that in spite of economic globalization, culture continues to play a key role in why we behave the way we do.</p> <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <em>development,book review,parenting,culture</em></p>https://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/16051/parenting-without-borders#1386002880&quot;Guess, reflect and check&quot;https://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/16050/guess-reflect-and-check
Fri, 22 Nov 2013 16:23:00 +0000]]>&quot;Guess, reflect and check&quot;https://www.thinkib.net/cache/blog-thumbs/4/16050-1384728521-thinkib.jpghttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/16050/guess-reflect-and-check<p> <img src="https://www.thinkib.net/cache/blog-thumbs/4/16050-1384728521-thinkib.jpg" alt="&quot;Guess, reflect and check&quot;" /><br /><br />26 years in the classroom and this week I had a new experience. It all started with the concept of hypothesis testing.</p> <p> It has always been the case that students struggle with writing a hypothesis. Very often students will write something like &quot;the level of noise will have an effect on one&#39;s ability to recall a list of words.&quot; It takes a while before they start making a prediction of what the outcome will be. Usually, after a while students wonder what they ever thought was difficult about this.</p> <p> But then there was Sara (not her real name). She came in frustrated that she wasn&#39;t getting full marks for her hypotheses on assessments. Once again, I explained that she had to predict what the outcome would be. A hypothesis is like a well informed guess, based on previous data. She looked at me blankly.</p> <p> Using one of my teacher&#39;s bag-of-tricks, I asked her how many people lived in the Czech Republic. She continued to look at me blankly. I encouraged her to make an &quot;educated guess.&quot; Her response? &quot;I don&#39;t know.&quot; I tried to cajole her into making a guess, but it was futile.</p> <p> So, I asked, &quot;Are there only three people in the Czech Republic?&quot; Now I got the glare. &quot;Of course, not.&quot; Ok. That didn&#39;t work. So, if Poland has 40 million inhabitants, how many might the Czech Republic have?&quot; Now she was frustrated and burst out &quot;Why can&#39;t we just look it up?&quot;</p> <p> I have been thinking a lot about this experience the last few weeks. I have discussed it with my colleagues - both at our school and with other psychology teachers. Does this student lack the cognitive skill to predict an outcome? Does she lack risk-taking skills and fears being wrong? Is she part of a computer generation that sees Google as the answer to all of her questions? And how many of my students actually struggle to do this - only to finally memorize a pattern which they can use? Will they simply memorize that they have to say &quot;the level of noise will increase one&#39;s ability to recall a list of words&quot; and then think that this is always the answer?</p> <h4> <span >Potential solution?</span></h4> <p> Clearly, this is an issue of critical thinking, regardless of its origin. I have created my own version of &quot;guess, reflect and check.&quot; Here is how it could work.</p> <p> Let&#39;s say that you are starting a unit on abnormal behaviour. To start, ask a simple question that students probably don&#39;t know the answer to. For example, <em>what is the most common disorder</em>? All students should silently write down what they think the answer is. But here is the rub - ask them to write down <em>how they know what they know</em>. When making a guess, they might say:</p> <blockquote> <ul> <li> Prozac is one of the top selling drugs - so it must be depression.</li> <li> PTSD is in the news a lot - so clearly must be a problem.</li> <li> I know a lot of people who suffer from high anxiety.</li> <li> I saw a BBC special on bipolar disorder and it said that it affected x number of people.</li> </ul> </blockquote> <p> Then, after everyone has had time to do this, then have them check it out - either as a class on their own laptops or with a single teacher laptop. See how many of them were right and have them share how they know what they know.</p> <p> I am hoping that this pattern of thinking will help students like Sara to develop her prediction skills. However, I think that this would help all students to develop their critical thinking skills. Another way to do this would be to take a research study and share with them the aim and procedure but have them predict the results. Or ask them a question like this: <em>In spite of his incredible memory loss, Clive Wearing still could remember complex musical pieces which he could play on the piano. How was this possible?</em> Once again, guess, reflect and check. (<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15791973">See this article, for example</a>).</p> <p> I am hoping to post some of the ideas for the &quot;unfinished studies&quot; on the site to help students develop this skill. As for students like Sara, I will keep you posted.</p> <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <em>laptops,estimation,critical thinking</em></p>https://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/16050/guess-reflect-and-check#1385137380Learning Caféshttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/15949/learning-cafes
Sun, 13 Oct 2013 16:28:00 +0000]]>Learning Caféshttps://www.thinkib.net/cache/blog-thumbs/4/15949-1381705025-thinkib.jpghttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/15949/learning-cafes<p> <img src="https://www.thinkib.net/cache/blog-thumbs/4/15949-1381705025-thinkib.jpg" alt="Learning Cafés" /><br /><br />I am lucky to live in one of Europe&#39;s most beautiful cities. Prague is a city that sustained minimal damage in World War II, so the streets look very much as they looked at the rebuilding of the city after the Swedes burned a good part of it down during the 30 Years War. One of the delights of the city is the significant number of turn-of-the-20th-century cafes.</p> <p> One summer afternoon I was sitting in my favorite cafe, the Caf&eacute; Savoy (pictured here), waiting to meet up with a former student who wanted to catch me on her life since graduation. As I sat there I thought about how much I enjoy the informal nature of the caf&eacute; culture. No rush, enjoying a good cup of coffee - or a chilled glass of Chardonnay - in a beautiful setting. It was at that moment that I thought I need to bring caf&eacute; culture to our school.</p> <p> This month we had our first ever &quot;Psych caf&eacute;.&quot; The goal of the caf&eacute; experience was for students to have an authentic learning experience. I wanted them to have those informed but informal conversation people have over a cup of coffee (alas, no chilled chardonnay). The results were even better than I had hoped.</p> <p> We have been studying the development option. We spent time looking at the role that parents have on a child&#39;s cognitive development. We started with Vygotsky. Then we looked at the the debate over who has more influence - parents or peers? Then it was a look at Amy Chua&#39;s tiger mother argument and then the role of attachment on our lives. That was the background they had going into the cafe. </p> <p> But the goal was not really to discuss research. Instead, it was to get <em>past the research</em> and to to discuss parenting with real people. So, with the help of my amazing Kindergarten teacher colleagues, invitations were sent to parents who had children with at least one child being 4 to 6 years old. In our school&#39;s &quot;blue room&quot;, tables were set and coffee, tea and muffins were served. But most importantly, in small groups, three to four of my students would have a conversation with one or two mothers who came in to share their wisdom. We started with a common question: <em>What is the one thing that you wish you had been told before you became a parent? </em>From there, students asked questions that they had prepared as well asked follow-up questions to comments made by the parents. A rather sneaky way of having them do a semi-structured interview.</p> <p> It was all so damn authentic. And they learned a lot.</p> <p> They learned that parents think about parenting; that culture plays a significant role in the goals they have for their child; the number of kids you have makes a difference; parents do treat their children differently - and they know it. They learned that a lot of what parents do is based on their own experience of being parented. And they learned that adults care enough to take time out of their day to share with young people what matters to them.</p> <p> One of my Russian students was in a group with a highly articulate American mom. When the caf&eacute; was done she hung around to talk. She told me that she thought that the mom that she spoke to was <em>so American! </em>Stereotypical. I asked if she had learned anything in spite of this. She said, &quot;I learned that actually are different ways of parenting your children.&quot; And then, after a reflective pause, &quot;And I think that Russian mothers could learn a lot from her.&quot;</p> <p> I am already thinking about other caf&eacute; topics for the future. Maybe local refugees to talk about transition and mental health. Maybe a local human rights group sharing about the plight of the mentally ill in Prague. Maybe a chance to talk to sports and exercise coaches. Maybe retired people coming in to share about the transition to not working and their thoughts on aging. </p> <p> I see a few more cups of Joe in my future...</p> <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <em>development,cafe,interviews,authentic learning</em></p>https://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/15949/learning-cafes#1381681680Memory and the Holocausthttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/15763/memory-and-the-holocaust
Sat, 24 Aug 2013 13:22:00 +0000]]>Memory and the Holocausthttps://www.thinkib.net/cache/blog-thumbs/4/15763-1377372570-thinkib.jpghttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/15763/memory-and-the-holocaust<p> <img src="https://www.thinkib.net/cache/blog-thumbs/4/15763-1377372570-thinkib.jpg" alt="Memory and the Holocaust" /><br /><br />My interest in memory distortion started many years ago when Robert Jan van Pelt, author of the book <em>The Case for Auschwitz, </em>said to a group of us at the Holocaust Museum in Washington that he had chosen to use biochemistry to prove that Auschwitz existed because survivors&#39; memories were not always accurate, and this could lead to their humiliation and stress in a court case against a famous Holocaust denier.</p> <p> In addition to my work as an IB psychology teacher, I devote a good part of my teaching to human rights and the Holocaust. I have taken students to the camps, to war crimes trials and to the USHMM in Washington in order for them to develop a deeper and more personal understanding of the Shoah.</p> <p> At one highly respected Holocaust museum, my students and I were listening to a survivor give her testimony. Her story, however, was not plausible. She talked to us about being in the propaganda film in Terezin. She then talked about her transport to Auschwitz and the night of the horrible gassing of the Roma (gypsies). She described that night in terrible detail. The problem? The Nazis began the production of the propaganda film on September 1, 1944 - and the Roma were gassed in Auschwitz on August 2, 1944.</p> <p> One of the most moving films that I have seen is <em>Bach in Auschwitz, </em>a documentary about the women&#39;s orchestra in Auschwitz and their director Alma Ros&eacute;. In one scene, two former members of the orchestra return to put flowers on the bunk of their former director, but they end up arguing about which side of the room she was on. The stronger personality prevails and the other women shakes her head in disbelief.</p> <p> Interested in this topic, I have spent hours trying to find research on the topic. Many articles focus on the story of Binjamin Wikomirksi, the author of the &quot;fictitious autobiography&quot; <em>Fragments</em>, in which he tells of his childhood suffering in the Holocaust - which never happened. But there is little research available on Holocaust survivors&#39; testimony; in fact, there are simply a lot of articles that attack the psychology of &quot;reconstructive memory&quot; as an assault on the memory of this horrible event.</p> <p> A study by Wagenaar &amp; Groaneweg (1990) looked at the testimony of 78 witnesses in a case against a man accused of Nazi crimes in the Netherlands. The testimonies were collected in the periods 1943&ndash;1947 and then again in 1984&ndash;1987. A comparison of these two periods revealed the amount of forgetting that occurred over 40 years. Results showed that camp experiences were generally well remembered, but specific and often essential details were forgotten. Among these were forgetting being maltreated, forgetting names and appearance of the torturers and forgetting being a witness to murder. Apparently intensity of experiences is not a sufficient safeguard against forgetting - but it does not discredit the atrocities of the Holocaust.</p> <p> According to what we know from cognitive psychology, it should not be a surprise that there are distortions in memory. </p> <blockquote> <ul> <li> Many survivors did not tell their stories for many years. The Holocaust was not really discussed openly until the 1960&#39;s in the West. In Central Europe, it was not until after 1989! I have watched survivors tell their stories for the first time. I have seen them react to the retelling of their own stories. There is no doubt about the credibility of their stories, but are they 100% accurate? Most probably not.</li> <li> Many survivors have watched many films about the Holocaust. This could lead to <em>misinformation effect</em>. One historian told me that there are many survivors remember being selected by Mengele, even though he was not there on their arrival in Auschwitz. This could be a detail included due to the images of selections in films.</li> <li> Many survivors have spent years sharing their stories in groups of other survivors. Their stories have become a &quot;collective story&quot;, where individual details may be shared, rather than having actually been experienced.</li> </ul> </blockquote> <p > One of my former principals was a Vietnam War veteran. I had him into my class to share his experience with my students. At one point in his narrative he stopped and said, &quot;At least I think that is what happened to me. I am not really sure if that is my story, or someone else&#39;s.&quot;</p> <p > In TOK we are always asking &quot;how do we know what we know?&quot; In looking at autobiographical testimony, we have to recognize that memory distortion cannot be ruled out. Acknowledging that memory distortion is a normal part of human existence does not challenge the existence or the horror of the Holocaust; instead, it challenges us to use a variety of sources to document what happened and more importantly, it reminds us that the survivors of the Holocaust were normal human beings.</p> <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <em>TOK,memory,distortion,cognitive,Holocaust,testimony</em></p>https://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/15763/memory-and-the-holocaust#1377350520Catching up on sleep during my holidayhttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/15629/catching-up-on-sleep-during-my-holiday
Wed, 07 Aug 2013 04:35:00 +0000]]>Catching up on sleep during my holidayhttps://www.thinkib.net/cache/blog-thumbs/4/15629-1375699719-thinkib.jpghttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/15629/catching-up-on-sleep-during-my-holiday<p> <img src="https://www.thinkib.net/cache/blog-thumbs/4/15629-1375699719-thinkib.jpg" alt="Catching up on sleep during my holiday" /><br /><br />What better thing to do on vacation than to read about sleep? This summer I read Till Roenneberg&#39;s <em>Internal Time: Chronotypes, social jet lag, and why you&#39;re so tired. </em> Actually, I thought that I knew why I might be so tired, but this book explained how it may be rooted in my chronotype.</p> <p> Your chronotype is like your &quot;sleep personality.&quot; It has to do with when you experience &quot;sleep pressure&quot; - that is, that sensation of falling asleep. Apparently, I am an early chronotype, rising at around 5 and needing to go to bed around 10. And apparently, I am rather rare in the grander scheme of things.</p> <p> One of the interesting studies he looks at was done by Van Someren et al (1999). They showed that lack of light is a main cause for the ultradian sleep pattern in the elderly and the mentally ill. Most elderly people hardly ever get the chance to go outside, and the television is their main source of light. This leads to a lot of napping during the day and disruptive sleep patterns at night. The researchers argue that the lethargic nature of many elderly is simply due to a lack of light. They added bright light sources to common rooms in the centers and sleep quality and overall health of the elderly improved.</p> <p> The book discusses in both an anecdotal and academic way how our chronotypes affect our relationships, our work and our free time. Perhaps the most interesting part of the book for IB psychology is the section on adolescence.</p> <p> Roenneberg argues that teenagers have late chronotypes that lead to becoming &quot;night owls&quot;. He says that around 20 years old, they reach a turning point and become earlier for the rest of their lives. This turning point, according to Roenneberg, is a biological marker for the end of adolescence. He provides evidence that this is a universal phenomenon, not limited to developed or urban societies. They have also observed this pattern of development in rats. Most striking in these chapters is the research on school start times and academic performance by Randler &amp; Fech (2006) which assessed the chronotypes of German university students and compared them with their grades on their final high school exams. The later the chronotype, the lower the grades.</p> <p> The topic of sleep is highly relevant for our students and fits nicely into several of the learning objectives. It may also get us to think about how our schedule in our schools may affect students. Should we also late chronotypes to sit their exams later in the day? Should we try to convince our schools to have a later start? To what extent does the fact that I am an early chronotype bias my attitude toward my students?</p> <p> In addition to the book, here are a few other resources that you may find helpful.</p> <div class="yellowBg"> <h4> <span >Resources</span></h4> <p> <a href="http://www.sleepfoundation.org/article/hot-topics/backgrounder-later-school-start-times">The argument for later school start times</a>. The Sleep Foundation.</p> <p> <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2603528/">Danner &amp; Phillips (2008). Adolescent sleep, school start times and teen motor vehicle crashes. <em>Clin Sleep Med; </em>4(6): 533 - 535. </a></p> <p> <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22906052">O&#39;Neel et al (2013). To study or to sleep? The academic costs of extra studying at the expense of sleep. <em>Child Development</em>; Jan-Feb;84(1):133-42</a>.</p> <p> <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09291010600645780#.Uf9HblM6fB4">Randler &amp; French (2006). Correlation between morningness-eveningness and final school leaving exams. <em>Biological Rhythm Research </em>37:233 - 239</a>. </p> <p> <a href="http://www.cell.com/current-biology/retrieve/pii/S0960982204009285">Roenneberg et al (2004). A marker for the end of adolescence<em>. Current Biology </em>14 (24): R1038 - R1039</a>. </p> <p> <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/body/sleep.html">Sleep</a>. A Nova Science Video online. Not available outside the US.</p> <p> <a href="http://nymag.com/news/features/38951/index1.html">Snooze or Lose</a> - a NYT article on the cost of sleep deprivation to learning.</p> </div> <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <em>biological,adolescence,adolescents,sleep,health,circadian,chronotypes,human relationships,book review</em></p>https://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/15629/catching-up-on-sleep-during-my-holiday#1375850100The World Until Yesterdayhttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/15621/the-world-until-yesterday
Thu, 01 Aug 2013 12:05:00 +0000]]>The World Until Yesterdayhttps://www.thinkib.net/cache/blog-thumbs/4/15621-1375380518-thinkib.jpghttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/15621/the-world-until-yesterday<p> <img src="https://www.thinkib.net/cache/blog-thumbs/4/15621-1375380518-thinkib.jpg" alt="The World Until Yesterday" /><br /><br />Part of my summer reading was Jared Diamond&rsquo;s latest book, <em>The World Until Yesterday. </em> Since I was planning a holiday in the South Pacific, I thought the book was an appropriate topic. I didn&rsquo;t expect there to be quite so many links to psychology &ndash; in particular, to developmental psychology.</p> <p> Diamond&rsquo;s book looks at <em>small-scale societies &ndash; </em>both hunter &amp; gatherer and small farming or herding communities. He begins his text with the stunning statistic that among a sample of papers from top psychology journals in 2008, 96% were from Westernized industrial societies with up to 80% having a sample of undergraduate students. He also criticizes cross-cultural studies of child development, arguing that most of that European, US, Japanese and Chinese research is all from the same &ldquo;narrow slice of human diversity.&rdquo; He points out that each of these societies has the same variables in child development:</p> <blockquote> <ul> <li> Systems of school education provided by the state (as opposed to learning from play and everyday experience)</li> <li> Same age play-groups</li> <li> Mothers having a working schedule that determines feeding patterns</li> <li> Family identities, rather than clan or tribal identities</li> </ul> </blockquote> <p> In addition, the vast majority of &ldquo;cross-cultural&rdquo; research is done in urban centers where universities are located.</p> <p> There are several interesting aspects of the life of indigenous populations that Diamond raises. These include issues of weaning, the role of parents and the autonomy of the child. I think that his chapter on &ldquo;bringing up children&rdquo; would be an excellent read for students, followed by some inquiry based learning focused on the big questions that emerge. Sadly, citation of the &ldquo;studies&rdquo; that he mentions is absent from the text because he feels that citation makes reading too &ldquo;cumbersome.&rdquo; That is my one big regret about the book.</p> <p> More information about his comparison of indigenous communities to industrial societies can be found under development on the site.</p> <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <em>book review,indigenous,development,culture,sociocultural,emic,etic</em></p>https://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/15621/the-world-until-yesterday#1375358700Psychology meets CAShttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/15512/psychology-meets-cas
Thu, 25 Jul 2013 00:00:00 +0000<p>One of the most natural ways to link psychology to other parts of the IB diploma program is to incorporate service learning into the curriculum. This may seem like a daunting task, but it is actually a great way to provide students with rich, meaningful experiences that help to apply what they are learning in psychology while also benefitting the community.</p> <p>The following four ideas are ways to integrate service learning into your curriculum. Three of them have been done in our school and I going to try one more this year.</p> <div class="yellowBg"> <p><img alt="" class="Left" height="175" src="files/psychology/images/garden.jpg" title="Image credit: Vmenkov" width="267" />Start a buddy program with the elementary school to compliment your development unit. My students spend a semester with a buddy that we meet once a week. Each week we spend about 20 minutes with our buddy. Before going as a group down to the classes, there is a theme for our journal entry. So, for example, upon returning to class, I may ask them to journal on &quot;play&quot; or on &quot;sharing&quot; as a general theme, or we may have something very specific that we are looking at like &quot;conservation.&quot; The goal is to journal on the child&#39;s growth over the year and to have real children to talk about in class discussions. </p> <hr class="hidden" /> <p>Extending that, a number of our students do an &quot;organic farming&quot; project with the 4 and 5 year olds. They help them to plant and harvest a vegetable and spice garden. The food that they produce goes to the cafeteria, which buys the food and then that money is put back into the garden as well as used to purchase food for the homeless. All while learning about development...</p> </div> <div class="pinkBg"> <p><img alt="" class="Left" height="175" src="files/psychology/images/cup of coffee.JPG" title="Image credit: Julius Schorzman" width="267" />Turn your classroom into a caf&eacute; in order to carry out interviews that can then be used to inform your community. For example, invite in parents with young children, refugees or elderly members of the community. Set the room up as a caf&eacute; and then have each table carry out an informal interview with the person at their table. Have a theme decided on before the meetings.</p> <hr class="hidden" /> <p>Then, have the students do a very informal content analysis. What were the quotes that struck them? Then have them print out the quotes and decorate a hallway of the school with &quot;things we learn from refugees about our own community,&quot; or have a presentation for the school with a slide show that documents the event and includes quotes on &quot;advice that the elderly would like to give to young high school students today.&quot; </p> </div> <div class="greenBg"> <p><img alt="" class="Left" height="200" src="files/psychology/images/Fries agogo.JPG" title="Image credit: Qfl247" width="267" />If you have an IB film course in your school (or even if you don&#39;t), having students make public service announcements is a great way to bring information to your community. My own students made films about the stigma associated with mental illness among students. After making the films, they took them to the grade 10 advisory groups, showed the films and then talked about the issues of mental health with the students.</p> <p>Another topic could easily be on obesity or smoking. Using film and using the different health campaign strategies to achieve a goal of affecting change is a great way to apply learning and then to use that to get students thinking about how to change their community&#39;s behaviour. </p> <hr class="hidden" /> <p>In our school there is now a &quot;cafeteria committee&quot; which gives advice on food and health. </p> Having students on that committee who are research based and informed about good eating habits is a great service to the community and forces them to think about what they are learning in class.</div> <div class="yellowBg"> <p><img alt="" class="Left" height="356" src="files/psychology/images/Tai chi.jpg" width="267" />Finally, the plan for this year is to have students run a &quot;Winter awareness program&quot; in order to increase our community&#39;s mental health during the dark winter season. In order to do this, we are going to have some students do a presentation at the Parent Society coffee in November where they will discuss the research on the effect of darkness on mood and what you can do to limit the effect. In addition, they will provide resources in the city of Prague for people that want more information.</p> <p>In addition, some students will lead an &quot;anti-depression league&quot; which will have exercise available every morning before school starts - including tai chi. Finally, there will be more discussions, surveys and other ways to get people to discuss what they are eating and how they are keeping fit during the winter months in order to counter depression.</p> <hr class="hidden" /><br /> <p>All of these projects clearly take student leadership and a lot of risk taking. The organic farming project above is completely a student initiative, over which I had no role. Often students get an idea and run with it. The film project and how to use it was completely a student driven project. Sometimes, I have the idea. That is the &quot;anti-depression league.&quot; You have to have students who are willing to buy into the idea before you do it - and it is not assessed. But I have found that these are the kind of projects where students feel proud of their work and it helps to build empathy as well as good psychology skills....</p> </div> <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <em>CAS, interviews, depression, abnormal, development</em></p>https://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/15512/psychology-meets-cas#1374710400Parent conferences and cultural dimensionshttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/15505/parent-conferences-and-cultural-dimensions
Thu, 11 Jul 2013 04:55:00 +0000]]>Parent conferences and cultural dimensionshttps://www.thinkib.net/cache/blog-thumbs/4/15505-1372935792-thinkib.jpghttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/15505/parent-conferences-and-cultural-dimensions<p> <img src="https://www.thinkib.net/cache/blog-thumbs/4/15505-1372935792-thinkib.jpg" alt="Parent conferences and cultural dimensions" /><br /><br /></p> <p> Notice that the PDI (power distance) is very high for Russia. So, they will see the principal as an authority figure. Great! But then look at two other indicators. First, Russia is a much more collectivistic society than the US. The beginning of the principal&#39;s remarks reflect many of the values that collectivistic societies admire: contributing positively to group work, honesty, reflecting well on the family and his country. The fact that he is a team player is very important. This is seen as praise. His individual performance, though not as strong, can be seen as something that needs work in comparison to his apparently outstanding achievement. The other important dimension is UIA - or Uncertainty Avoidance. You will notice that Russians do not like uncertainty. Russians tend to communicate ideas very directly. So, to hear &quot;we believe that our school <em>may not be </em>the right school for him,&quot; does not make much sense and definitely is not seen as a threat. The communication is not clear and leaves ambiguity - and thus a possibilty that &quot;all will be ok.&quot; Since this was the principal, and he said that Sergei is doing well in many areas, the family decided that it was not a problem. </p> <p> Needless to say, when the family was told directly that Sergei was not coming back, they were surprised and hurt. And everyone else was surprised that &quot;they didn&#39;t know.&quot;</p> <p> I believe that becoming more culturally aware would make our schools better communicators about what we truly care about - our students. You might want to ask your own students to talk about parent-conferences from their cultural perspective. What do our schools do right? And what do they do wrong? It may be a real eye-opener.</p> <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <em>culture,dimensions,cultural,application</em></p>https://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/15505/parent-conferences-and-cultural-dimensions#1373518500The problems with biologyhttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/15501/the-problems-with-biology
Tue, 02 Jul 2013 04:44:00 +0000]]>The problems with biologyhttps://www.thinkib.net/cache/blog-thumbs/4/15501-1372764450-thinkib.jpghttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/15501/the-problems-with-biology<p> There are many common misperceptions about the biological level of <img src="https://www.thinkib.net/cache/blog-thumbs/4/15501-1372764450-thinkib.jpg" alt="The problems with biology" /><br /><br />analysis. Often, the nature of these misperceptions is rooted in an &quot;all or nothing&quot; or dichotomous approach taken by students when evaluating research. I would like to address three of the most common misperceptions that are made in student essays:</p> <p> * One of the problems with the biological level of analysis is that it is reductionist.</p> <p> * One of the problems with this study at the BLOA is that it does not take culture into consideration.</p> <p> * Animals are used for two reasons - to avoid both demand characteristics and ethical considerations.</p> <p> By looking more carefully at these evaluation strategies, our students should be able to write more well developed and informed critical thinking on their exams.</p> <div class="yellowBg"> <h3> <strong><span >The issue of reductionism</span></strong></h3> <p> Even though you wouldn&#39;t know it from our students, reductionism was at one time seen as a <em>strength</em> of the biological level of analysis. Reductionist arguments are based on the idea that a complex system is nothing but the sum of its parts, and that complex behaviors be reduced to explanations of individual factors. So, it is the idea that we could find a neurotransmitter that is responsible for depression or that a gene could be responsible for resilience. It is based on the idea of Occam&#39;s Razor that is that among competing hypotheses, the hypothesis with the fewest assumptions should be selected. In other words, the simplest explanation is usually the correct one and researchers should test simpler theories until simplicity can be traded for greater explanatory power. </p> <p> This was seen as a strength of the biological level of analysis because it was trying to identify specific factors that could be empirically tested in order to establish a cause and effect relationship. A lot of the great biological research has actually <em>not </em>found these links, and that has given us great insight into human behavior. To argue that a study provides evidence of a cause and effect relationship but is a problem because it is &quot;reductionist&quot;, is not a very strong answer.</p> <p> Others argue that inappropriate use of reductionism limits our understanding of complex systems. This is more often what students are trying to say, but this is also problematic. In the field of biology today there is great understanding of the interaction of environmental and biological factors. Although a study may be reductionist, the level of analysis cannot be so simply dismissed with this argument. </p> <p> Many students say that HM is &quot;reductionist because it argues that memory are localized.&quot; First, the study was a case study. The approach was holistic. Secondly, the idea that memory is localized in the brain is far from &quot;reductionist.&quot; Biologists have found that the consolidation of semantic memory from STM to LTM takes place in the hippocampus, but memory formation is much more complex than that and biologists recognize this. A better example of reductionism would be an argument that a complex behavior like sexuality could be attributed to a gene (e.g.. Bailey &amp; Pillard), but even there, Bailey &amp; Pillard recognized the role of environment. In the modern world of epigenetics, one may have a gene, but it takes an environmental stimulus to &quot;turn it on.&quot;</p> </div> <div class="greenBg"> <h3> <strong><span >The issue of culture</span></strong></h3> <p> One of the common evaluations of biological research is that the sample was not cross-cultural. Sometimes, students even include comments like &quot;different races were not included.&quot; One of the fundamental principles of biology is that we share a common biology. Although there are genetic differences (e.g... sickle cell anemia or cystic fibrosis), it is assumed that the basic brain structure and functions of the nervous system are the same. Culture may be considered in abnormal psychology with regard to the somatization of a disorder, but in general, it is not a very good argument - not to mention that comments about races being biologically different is something that has a long and painful history. </p> </div> <div class="pinkBg"> <h3> <strong><span >The issue of animal research</span></strong></h3> <p> Animal research remains a contentious issue in the study of human behavior. Many students hold the misperception that the reason that we do research on animals is because we are able to violate ethics. This is a misperception, or at least an oversimplification. There are clear and strict guidelines for the treatment of animals in research. It is true that animals do die in research and that a cost-benefit analysis must be made in order to determine whether the death of the animal is &quot;worth it.&quot; However, students rarely mention that the other key reasons that animals are used: for example, the ability to see several generations in a short period of time, which is essential for Alzheimer&#39;s research. Or the fact that their genetic and physiological make-up are very similar to humans and thus the results can be generalized to some extent. </p> <p> Another common assessment of animal research is that it is &quot;free of demand characteristics.&quot; Anyone who has a pet knows that one&#39;s behavior can affect an animal&#39;s behavior. It is ironic that we often object to animal research because of their very human characteristics, but then think that they would not be influenced by a researcher&#39;s behavior....</p> </div> <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <em>biology,biological,reductionist,culture,lab,field,demand characteristics,animal research</em></p>https://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/15501/the-problems-with-biology#1372740240Standards based reportinghttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/15373/standards-based-reporting
Wed, 15 May 2013 09:42:00 +0000]]>Standards based reportinghttps://www.thinkib.net/cache/blog-thumbs/4/15373-1368633467-thinkib.jpghttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/15373/standards-based-reporting<p> <img src="https://www.thinkib.net/cache/blog-thumbs/4/15373-1368633467-thinkib.jpg" alt="Standards based reporting" /><br /><br /></p> </div> <p> What does this mean? I think that in the end, this provides better feedback for our students, whether we are using standards based reporting or not. This gives students a clear content, critical thinking and organization grade, which will help them to set goals for improvement. By simply giving the final markband, they could get a high mark because the content is so fresh in their minds, but their critical thinking or organization is less than exemplary. In addition, I think it makes it easier to talk with parents about what the students need to do to improve.</p> <p> My own students have found this very helpful. You might want to consider giving it a go....</p><p><strong>Tags:</strong> <em>reporting,assessment,critical thinking,content,organization</em></p>https://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/15373/standards-based-reporting#1368610920Peak-end rulehttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/15310/peak-end-rule
Sun, 28 Apr 2013 09:26:00 +0000]]>Peak-end rulehttps://www.thinkib.net/cache/blog-thumbs/4/15310-1367162887-thinkib.jpghttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/15310/peak-end-rule<p> <img src="https://www.thinkib.net/cache/blog-thumbs/4/15310-1367162887-thinkib.jpg" alt="Peak-end rule" /><br /><br /> </p> <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <em>cognitive,peak-end rule,peak,end,heuristic,relationships,decision making,memory</em></p>https://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/15310/peak-end-rule#1367141160Bringing disaster into the classroomhttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/16042/bringing-disaster-into-the-classroom
Fri, 05 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0000<p><img alt="" class="Right" height="177" src="files/psychology/images/Typhoon-Haiyan.jpg" width="228" /><br />Every once in a while there is something in the news that perfectly fits with what I am doing in class with my students. Sadly, this week the news from the Philippines allowed us to apply our research on trauma and resilience. This type of discussion engages students and helps them to apply critical thinking skills in a new situation.</p> <p>This week&#39;s tragedy in Tacloban is an good example of how we can use current events to help students to understand psychology, but also how IB psychology can be linked with CAS and, perhaps even more importantly, help students to develop a sense of empathy - a key component of the IB Learner Profile.</p> <p>To begin class, we discussed what we knew about the typhoon. We also looked at images of the damage that were available on BBC and other mainstream news networks. Then we did our task for the day.</p> <div class="yellowBg"> <h3><span >The task</span></h3> <p>We watched together <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24896060">a series of videos and listened to podcasts that told the stories of survivors in Tacloban</a>. They were very moving and students commented on the film clips as we watched them.</p> <p>I then asked the following question: Based on what we know from resilience research, what are the protective factors that will help some of these people to recover from this traumatic life experience?</p> <p>Students were given time to write down their reflections on that question based on the films that we watched. Here are some of our discussion points.</p> <ul> <li>Whether family survived or not. Students argued that the best solution for people who lost their entire family was to be taken in by a family to provide some support.</li> <li>The effects of potential malnutrition on children&#39;s development.</li> <li>The effects of stress on health - especially as the people of Tacloban are now being exposed to disease. Those who find ways to counter the stress and protect their immune systems stand a better chance of avoiding chronic health problems.</li> <li>Several of the survivors talked about &quot;God saving them&quot; or &quot;a miracle.&quot; The idea that they felt &quot;chosen&quot; means that their lives have a purpose. We linked this to research by Stevan Weine on resilience in Bosnian refugees and Viktor Frankl&#39;s work with the unemployed.</li> <li>As difficult as it may be to have a child under these conditions, the idea that you have a child to love and protect also gives you a sense of purpose.</li> <li>The role of prayer as a form of meditation that counters stress and lowers the effects of glucocorticoids.</li> </ul> <p>You could extend this activity with an activity which asked students to come up with a &quot;mental health triage plan&quot; for the people of Tacloban. If they were in charge of &quot;mental health relief&quot;, what plan would they develop in order to address the psychological issues that are caused by such a catastrophe?</p> <p>If you are just interested in finding out more about mental health in times of disaster, here are some good sites.</p> <blockquote> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.trauma-pages.com/disaster.php">Disaster Mental Health</a></li> <li><a href="http://emergency.cdc.gov/mentalhealth/">Coping with disaster - CDC</a></li> <li><a href="http://apa.org/topics/disasters/">Natural disasters</a> - a collection of articles by the APA</li> </ul> </blockquote> </div> <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <em>current events, resilience, trauma</em></p>https://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/16042/bringing-disaster-into-the-classroom#1365120000SIT and healthhttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/15178/sit-and-health
Tue, 26 Feb 2013 13:26:00 +0000]]>SIT and healthhttps://www.thinkib.net/cache/blog-thumbs/4/15178-1361907101-thinkib.jpghttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/15178/sit-and-health<p> Sometimes students can surprise you. When reading through a stack of essays on Social Identity Theory, I came across a study that I did not know. The study (Cole, Kemeny &amp; Taylor, 1997) looked at the role of Social Identity on the progression of HIV in gay men. The study provides an interesting link between SIT and our health.</p> <div class="yellowBg"> <h4> <span >The study</span></h4> <p> <img src="https://www.thinkib.net/cache/blog-thumbs/4/15178-1361907101-thinkib.jpg" alt="SIT and health" /><br /><br />The researchers wanted to see if HIV might progress more rapidly in gay men who were sensitive to social rejection. In other words, if the men experienced feelings of being in an out-group that impacted on their self-esteem, would they be more likely to develop full-blown AIDS more quickly than other infected men?</p> <p> The study was a nine-year prospective study of 72 initially healthy HIV infected gay men. The sample was taken from a larger sample of well-educated, affluent, and largely White participants in a long-term biomedical study conducted in an urban west-coast setting.</p> <p> In order to determine the men&rsquo;s level of rejection sensitivity, they were given the &quot;Social Situations Scale test.&quot; The questionnaire asks gay male respondents to consider a variety of social situations in which their homosexuality might be particularly salient to others. Those with high &ldquo;rejection sensitivity&rdquo; scored high on both &ldquo;family-friend&rdquo; questions (e.g., attending a family function with a partner) and &ldquo;stranger-public&rdquo; questions (getting a motel room for yourself and your partner.)</p> <p> Every six months, blood was drawn and the lymphocyte count taken. Interviews were also done with each participant to determine if any other factors may have played a role in a change in health. This included discussions of exercise, diet, changes at work or among friendship circles and sexual activity.</p> <p> The researchers found that rejection sensitive individuals experienced a significant acceleration to a low CD4 T lymphocyte level to AIDS diagnosis and to HIV related mortality. HIV infection advanced significantly more rapidly in gay men who showed high levels of stranger-public rejection sensitivity. Family-friend rejection sensitivity failed to significantly predict a rapid decline in health.</p> <p> These results consistently indicate that HIV infection progressed more rapidly in gay men who were particularly sensitive to rejection by unfamiliar others. These differences were substantial, with gay men at the 75th percentile of rejection suffering AIDS onset and HIV-related mortality roughly 2 years earlier than their counterparts at the 25th percentile</p> <p> Gay men who were particularly sensitive to rejection by unfamiliar others (stranger-public) were also significantly more likely to conceal their homosexual identity. And interestingly, concealing homosexuality reduced the progression of the disease.</p> <p> On each measure of disease progression studied, rejection-sensitive gay men who were in the closet experienced significantly weaker accelerations in HIV progression than did those who were out.</p> <p> These results suggest that the physical health risks associated with rejection sensitivity stem directly from responses to the threat of social rejection rather than from some other behavioral, affective, or temperamental correlate of rejection sensitivity.</p> <p> Although these data suggest that sensitivity to social rejection may relate to the rate of HIV progression, they do not provide any information on the physiologic mechanisms linking these two variables.</p> </div> <div class="greenBg"> <h4> <span >References</span></h4> <p> Cole, S., Kemeny, M., and S. Taylor (1997). <em>Social Identity and Physical Health: Accelerated HIV progression in Rejection-Sensitive Gay Men. </em> Journal of Personality and Social Psychology; 1997; Vol 72; No 2 320 &ndash; 335.</p> </div> <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <em>Social identity theory,health,HIV,gay,infection,immune system,rejection</em></p>https://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/15178/sit-and-health#1361885160Polling during the Vietnam Warhttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/14938/polling-during-the-vietnam-war
Mon, 31 Dec 2012 11:48:00 +0000]]>Polling during the Vietnam Warhttps://www.thinkib.net/cache/blog-thumbs/4/14938-1355940720-thinkib.jpghttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/14938/polling-during-the-vietnam-war<p> <img src="https://www.thinkib.net/cache/blog-thumbs/4/14938-1355940720-thinkib.jpg" alt="Polling during the Vietnam War" /><br /><br />The following exercise is an interesting one that makes us think about how we make the decisions that we do. There are many links to different sociocultural and cognitive theories here. But first, let&#39;s start with the activity.</p> <h3> <span >The Task</span></h3> <p> During the Vietnam war, polling groups in the United States played a key role in swaying public opinion. In addition to asking people for their opinion, they also took demographic information about those whom they polled.</p> <p> Give students the chart below. Ask them to fill in what they think the break down was as to which groups were most opposed to the war in Vietnam. Remind them of the relevant mathematics here:</p> <blockquote> <ul> <li> Each column must add up to 100%</li> <li> The top row should add up to 225 (which is 75% of 300)</li> <li> The bottom row should add up to 75 (which is 25% of 300).</li> </ul> </blockquote> <div class="blueBg"> <table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tbody> <tr> <td > </td> <td > <p> College education</p> </td> <td > <p> High school education</p> </td> <td > <p> Grade school education</p> </td> <td > <p> Total Adults</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td > <p> % for withdrawal of US troops</p> </td> <td > </td> <td > </td> <td > </td> <td > <p> 75%</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td > <p> % against withdrawal of US troops</p> </td> <td > </td> <td > </td> <td > </td> <td > <p> 25%</p> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </div> <p> According to Loewen, this is a very common response from students:</p> <div class="yellowBg"> <table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tbody> <tr> <td > </td> <td > <p> College education</p> </td> <td > <p> High school education</p> </td> <td > <p> Grade school education</p> </td> <td > <p> Total Adults</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td > <p> % for withdrawal of US troops</p> </td> <td > <p align="center"> </p> <p align="center"> 90%</p> </td> <td > <p align="center"> </p> <p align="center"> 75%</p> </td> <td > <p align="center"> </p> <p align="center"> 60%</p> </td> <td > <p align="center"> </p> <p align="center"> 75%</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td > <p> % against withdrawal of US troops</p> </td> <td > <p align="center"> </p> <p align="center"> 10%</p> </td> <td > <p align="center"> </p> <p align="center"> 25%</p> </td> <td > <p align="center"> </p> <p align="center"> 40%</p> </td> <td > <p align="center"> </p> <p align="center"> 25%</p> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </div> <p> After having them fill in the chart, assuming that they will have numbers similar to this, ask them my why they think that this is true. Why would educated people be more likely to be against a continuation of the war in Vietnam?</p> <p> After this discussion, show them the actual data:</p> <div class="pinkBg"> <table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tbody> <tr> <td > </td> <td > <p> College education</p> </td> <td > <p> High school education</p> </td> <td > <p> Grade school education</p> </td> <td > <p> Total Adults</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td > <p> % for withdrawal of US troops</p> </td> <td > <p align="center"> </p> <p align="center"> 60%</p> </td> <td > <p align="center"> </p> <p align="center"> 75%</p> </td> <td > <p align="center"> </p> <p align="center"> 80%</p> </td> <td > <p align="center"> </p> <p align="center"> 75%</p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td > <p> % against withdrawal of US troops</p> </td> <td > <p align="center"> </p> <p align="center"> 40%</p> </td> <td > <p align="center"> </p> <p align="center"> 25%</p> </td> <td > <p align="center"> </p> <p align="center"> 20%</p> </td> <td > <p align="center"> </p> <p align="center"> 25%</p> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </div> <h3> <span >Discussion</span></h3> <p> Why do they think that this is actually what happened? Whether you have them do their own numbers or you have them look at the &quot;most common answers&quot; first and then follow it by the real poll results, why do they think that people make this mistake?</p> <p> They may argue that it is because the people who would go to war were less educated. The logic would be that those who need to fear going to war are more likely to be against it. However, research has shown that people who expect to go to war tend to support that war, because people rarely don&#39;t believe in something that they plan to do. Festinger (1957) found that male college students during World War II, who knew that they were going to fight, were more &quot;pro-war&quot; than skilled electricians and welders, who knew that they were going to work in domestic war materials production.</p> <p> Cognitive dissonance helps to explain why young men of draft age supported the war more than older men, and why men supported the war more than women. Remember - at this women were not employed to combat positions in the US military.</p> <p> So, what could explain what we see above? Educated, successful people believe that the society that helped them to be educated and successful is fair. They are invested in the &quot;Just World Hypothesis.&quot; This has been reinforced because they worked hard, and they are successful. They, therefore, attribute their success to their hard work - that is, dispositional factors. They, thus, tend to show more allegiance to the society, while those who are in the lower levels of society tend to be more critical of it.</p> <p> It is also important to note that Social Identity Theory plays a key role here. Educated people are over-represented in our governments. So, every time you turn on the television and see government officials, they are in the educated &quot;in-group.&quot; Hence, the educated class see themselves as part of the in-group of those making decisions.</p> <p> And why do we make the mistake of over-attributing protest to the war to the educated? It is a combination of hindsight bias and an illusory correlation. We tend to equate educated people with being informed and tolerant. However, sadly this is often not the case.</p> <blockquote> <p> <span >Adapted from: <em>Lies my teacher told me: Everything your American history textbook got wrong</em>, by James Loewen, 1995.</span></p> </blockquote> <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <em>Vietnam,attribution,</em></p>https://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/14938/polling-during-the-vietnam-war#1356954480Shopping while blackhttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/14937/shopping-while-black
Mon, 24 Dec 2012 07:02:00 +0000]]>Shopping while blackhttps://www.thinkib.net/cache/blog-thumbs/4/14937-1355923045-thinkib.jpghttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/14937/shopping-while-black<p> <img src="https://www.thinkib.net/cache/blog-thumbs/4/14937-1355923045-thinkib.jpg" alt="Shopping while black" /><br /><br /> </iframe></p> <p> In this particular exercise, there are several things that students may talk about:</p> <ul> <li> The man who says, &quot;Oh, I felt so bad for her.&quot; This is social desirability effect at its best.</li> <li> The role of cognitive dissonance which leads to self-justification of their behaviours.</li> <li> The role of Social Identity Theory in the behaviour of the African American male.</li> <li> The role of social comparison and social proof to determine how to behave - for example, when the whole crowd follows them out.</li> <li> The role of stereotyping and stereotype threat.</li> <li> The question as to why the British women help. Is it Social Identity Theory - i.e. they are an out-group to US shoppers in general? Or is there some other reason?</li> </ul> <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <em>prejudice,cognitive dissonance,critical thinking,social identity theory,discrimination,stereotype</em></p>https://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/14937/shopping-while-black#1356332520Is Broca still relevant today?https://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/14936/is-broca-still-relevant-today
Wed, 19 Dec 2012 06:57:00 +0000]]>Is Broca still relevant today?https://www.thinkib.net/cache/blog-thumbs/4/14936-1355921965-thinkib.jpghttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/14936/is-broca-still-relevant-today<p> <img src="https://www.thinkib.net/cache/blog-thumbs/4/14936-1355921965-thinkib.jpg" alt="Is Broca still relevant today?" /><br /><br />It is amazing to me that students are still writing about Paul Broca&#39;s research from the 1800&#39;s. Considering how much research has been done on the brain in the past 20 years, it seems rather unreasonable that students choose to demonstrate their knowledge of the biological level of analysis by writing about a study that is over 150 years old. </p> <p> Seeing that this study has apparent interest for students, I feel it is important to update students on where we are with Broca&#39;s area. The bottom line is - today Broca&#39;s findings have been challenged; some would argue that they have been refuted. Recent findings with language-impaired patients have suggested that other regions also play a role in speech production.</p> <p> Obviously, when Broca did his research, he did it on a very small sample. There were two historic patients on which the claims for the role of the Broca&#39;s area were based. In addition, the only way he had to map the brain was through post-mortem research, which is rather limited compared to the technology that we have today. <a href="http://brain.oxfordjournals.org/content/130/5/1432">Dronkers et al (2006)</a> examined the brains of these two famous patients using a high-resolution MRI. It appears that the absence of speech cannot be attributed to lesions in the Broca&#39;s area alone. In fact, the region which was damaged in the patients is not precisely the same region that we today know as the Broca&#39;s area. </p> <p> These findings are important; they may help to explain why damage limited to the cortext of the Broca&#39;s Area does not appear to produce Broca&#39;s aphasia. It appears that the damage must extend to the surrounding regions of the frontal lobe and the underlying white matter. </p> <p> Another study appears to show the role of genetics in language development. <a href="http://brain.oxfordjournals.org/content/125/3/465.short">Watkins et al (2002)</a> studied three generations of the KE family, half of whose members are affected by a severe speech and language disorder caused by mutation of a single gene found on chromosome 7. The mutation appears to cause abnormal development of the caudate nucleus and the left inferior frontal cortex, including Broca&#39;s area.</p> <p> Wernicke (1874) suggested that the Broca&#39;s area contains motor memories - that is, memories of the sequences of muscular movements that are needed to articulate words. But Broca&#39;s aphasia is more complex than this. There are three major speech deficits that are produced by legions in and around the Broca&#39;s Area: agrammatism, anomia and articulation difficulties. Agrammatism is the inability to produce grammatically correct speech. Anomia is the inability to name persons or objects. These problems cannot be explained by Wernicke&#39;s original conclusions.</p> <p> In addition, <a href="http://brain.oxfordjournals.org/content/127/7/1461.full">Dronkers (1996)</a> has found that apraxia - the inabilty to produce speech because of the inability to control the movement of the tongue, lips and throat - is due to damage to the insular cortex, not the Broca&#39;s area.</p> <p> So, the bottom line is that it appears that Broca oversimplified the process of speech production and that the argument for localization of function is a rather reductionist approach to such a complex human behaviour. I would like to suggest that if Broca is a part of our curriculum, that we help students to understand the role of this study in the 21st century and show them the complexity of the interaction between our physiology and psychology.</p> <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <em>Broca,Broca\'s area,localization,brain,language,aphasia,agrammatism,anomia,stroke,MRI</em></p>https://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/14936/is-broca-still-relevant-today#1355900220Anonymity and the Internethttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/14931/anonymity-and-the-internet
Mon, 17 Dec 2012 08:46:00 +0000]]>Anonymity and the Internethttps://www.thinkib.net/cache/blog-thumbs/4/14931-1355756418-thinkib.jpghttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/14931/anonymity-and-the-internet<p> <img src="https://www.thinkib.net/cache/blog-thumbs/4/14931-1355756418-thinkib.jpg" alt="Anonymity and the Internet" /><br /><br />One of the current events that caught my eye this fall occurred in response to Barak Obama&#39;s reelection in November. </p> <p> After the election was declared, students in the US used Twitter to send racist comments into cyberspace. <a href="http://jezebel.com/5958993/racist-teens-forced-to-answer-for-tweets-about-the-nigger-president">A &quot;gawker site&quot; struck back my publishing information about the students on their site.</a> This led to a great discussion with my students about what happens when people are anonymous in cyberspace.</p> <p> Way before there was the Internet, Diener, Fraser, Beaman &amp; Kelem (1976) carried out an experiment to see how wearing a Halloween mask would impact one&#39;s level of honesty.</p> <p> The researchers recorded the behaviour of Halloween trick-or-treaters when they were invited into the front hall of a home and left alone while the person who let them went to get something from the other room. They were told to please take a single piece of candy from the bowl. The researchers found that the children wearing masks took more than one piece of candy far more often than the children who were not anonymous.</p> <p> When this occurs on the Internet, it is calle &quot;Online Disinhibition Effect.&quot; John Suler has created <a href="http://users.rider.edu/~suler/psycyber/disinhibit.html">a site that looks at the different facets of this behaviour</a>. If you would like to read the original journal article, it is <a href="http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/1094931041291295">downloadable at this site</a>.</p> <p> You will also see that the news article had a lot to discuss. Almost all of the students claimed that their Twitter accounts were hacked into. A good discussion of cognitive dissonance and self-justification - and a good way to make our students more aware of the importance of being careful about what you put online.....</p><p><strong>Tags:</strong> <em>deindivuation,twitter,masks,anonymity,aggression</em></p>https://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/14931/anonymity-and-the-internet#1355733960The psychology of snowhttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/14227/the-psychology-of-snow
Tue, 30 Oct 2012 14:40:00 +0000]]>The psychology of snowhttps://www.thinkib.net/cache/blog-thumbs/4/14227-1351630700-thinkib.jpghttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/14227/the-psychology-of-snow<p> <img src="https://www.thinkib.net/cache/blog-thumbs/4/14227-1351630700-thinkib.jpg" alt="The psychology of snow" /><br /><br /> </iframe></p> <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <em>critical thinking,snow,mental health</em></p>https://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/14227/the-psychology-of-snow#1351608000Persuasive candidateshttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/14021/persuasive-candidates
Sun, 14 Oct 2012 11:22:00 +0000]]>Persuasive candidateshttps://www.thinkib.net/cache/blog-thumbs/4/14021-1350235637-thinkib.jpghttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/14021/persuasive-candidates<p> <img alt="" class="Right" src="/files/psychology/images/Barack_Obama.jpg" title="Image credit: Public domain" height="200" width="148">As October continues its mischievous weather, many of us are inundated with election campaigns. Here in the Czech Republic, the communist party has made major gains by attacking the corruption of the center-right government. In the US the country is watching presidential debates and engaging in daily prognostications about who will be the next president. Elections (of sorts) have also recently taken place in Belarus and Venezuela.<br> <br> Is there any way to link these current events to psychology?<br> <br> Petty &amp; Cacioppo (1984) proposed the <em>Elaboration Likelihood Model of Persuasion</em>. They argue that there are two major routes to persuasion. The <span ><strong>central route</strong></span> relies on solid arguments based on relevant facts and figures that get people to think about the issues. The <span ><strong>peripheral route</strong></span>, rather than engaging a person’s thinking, provides cues that stimulate acceptance of the argument without much thinking.<br> <br> One of the most famous ads in US history was the ad used by George Bush against his Democratic challenger, Michael Dukakis. Can you see why this ad was so effective? Notice the “appeal to emotion” that this video very successfully employed in the election campaign.</p> <p> <iframe allowfullscreen="" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Io9KMSSEZ0Y" frameborder="0" height="315" width="420"></iframe><br> <br> So, is the peripheral route alive and well in the current US election? Take a look at the following articles, and you decide.</p> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.policymic.com/articles/16427/presidential-debates-how-body-language-reveals-who-really-wins-and-loses">Presidential debates: How Body Language Reveals Who Really Wins and Loses</a></li> <li> <a href="http://www.wickedlocal.com/wellesley/news/x21087908/Renowned-body-language-expert-says-Obama-lost-the-first-debate#axzz29G9Xaf8t">Renowned body language expert says Obama lost the first debate.</a></li> <li> <a href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/09/120924142139.htm">Media Coverage Influences Value of US Presidential Debate for Viewers</a></li> <li> <a href="http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/play-in-mind/201210/what-big-bird-means-the-presidential-debate">What Big Bird Means to the Presidential Debate</a></li> <li> <a href="http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-me-in-we/201112/god-in-political-speechmaking">God in political speech making</a></li> </ul> <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <em>communication,persuasion,body language,nonverbal,TOK</em></p>https://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/14021/persuasive-candidates#1350213720SIT in the news?https://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/13907/sit-in-the-news
Thu, 27 Sep 2012 13:55:00 +0000]]>SIT in the news?https://www.thinkib.net/cache/blog-thumbs/4/13907-1348775800-thinkib.jpghttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/13907/sit-in-the-news<p> <img alt="" class="Right" src="/files/psychology/images/Pakistan.jpg" title="Image credit: AP" height="200" width="321">As we watch the response in the Middle East to a movie posted on the Internet, this gives us a good opportunity to think like a psychologist. Why is this happening? Is there an easy explanation?<br> <br> The easy explanation is Tajfel’s Social Identity Theory. It appears that the movie has served to heighten the sense of us vs. Them - that is, the Western World and Muslim countries. It seems that Muslims see the West (particularly the US) as homogeneous - that is, that this movie maker is representative of all Americans and of US policy. Americans, on the other hand, do seem to see the Muslim countries as angry and ungrateful. In the first days after the killings in Libya, riots against US embassies were seen in Yemen, Sudan, Bangladesh and roughly 20 other countries. It seems like Tajfel is right again.<br> <br> Or is he? Is it possible to extrapolate this theory to “The West” and the “Muslim countries?”<br> <br> I would argue that it is not. This news event helps us to see that the theory has its limitations.<br> <br> The theory is best used to explain the deindividuation that happens within the groups that protest against the embassies. Definitely, there is a sense of “us” vs. “them” that emerges between the groups - with the US embassy serving as a representation of the American government and its people. However, even in this case there are some problems with applying the theory to the current political situation.<br> <br> First, in some cases there does not appear to be a political agenda, but more of a sense of economic opportunism. In Tunis, protestors attacked the American International school there and took all of their computers and burned the library. Was this truly an example of protest, or was this simply looting? How would a psychologist be able to discern this?<br> <br> Secondly, the theory is overly simplistic. For example, the greatest number of riots and protests took place in Pakistan. It should not be surprising. This is not necessarily because the Muslim identity is stronger in Pakistan than anywhere else, but could very well be tied to the drone attacks which Pakistanis have been enduring for the past four years. In other words, there may be several other factors that account for why there is more violence in some countries than in others.<br> <br> Finally, the Social Identity Theory fails to predict which people will rise up in anger and which will not. In the media that we watch, it often seems that the whole of the Middle East is rising up in anger, but it is a limited number of people who have reacted with a range of behaviours.<br> <br> I think that this is a good example of how difficult it is to try to explain world events through psychology - though I think that it is worth us giving it a try! No singular theory will explain something as complex as what we are seeing in the world right now, but we can start to ask questions which may lead us to better understanding.<br> <br> For more on this topic, you may want to read: <a href="http://www.iwu.edu/polisci/RP_2005/Res_Publica_BOOK_05_buenning.pdf"><em>Why they hate us: An Empirical study of individuals’ anti-American Attitudes.</em></a><br> </p> <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <em>SIT,social identity theory,violence,evaluation</em></p>https://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/13907/sit-in-the-news#1348754100Generalizing from a single casehttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/13794/generalizing-from-a-single-case
Sat, 08 Sep 2012 12:24:00 +0000]]>Generalizing from a single casehttps://www.thinkib.net/cache/blog-thumbs/4/13794-1347129024-thinkib.jpghttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/13794/generalizing-from-a-single-case<h3> Misconceptions in psychology</h3> <p> <strong>One cannot generalize on the basis of an individual case study.</strong></p> <p> <em>More discoveries have arisen from intense observation [of individual cases] than from statistics applied to large groups. </em></p> <p align="right"> William Beveridge (1951)</p> <p> <img alt="It's always better to have more than one case" class="Right" src="/files/psychology/images/cases.jpg" height="200" width="200">The view that one cannot generalize on the basis of a single case is a common misunderstanding seen on examinations. It is often used as an evaluative strategy. For example, “HM was a case study. One limitation is that case studies cannot be generalized.” This is actually not true.</p> <p> It is true that cases are not randomly selected. But then, they are not intended to be random. Purposive sampling is used for case studies. Case study approaches do not produce statistically representative data in this manner. The question is, does this matter?</p> <p> Formal gener­alization is only one of many ways by which people gain and accumulate knowledge. That knowledge cannot be formally generalized does not mean that it cannot enter into the collec­tive process of knowledge accumulation in a given field or in a society. Knowledge may be transferable even where it is not formally generalizable. A purely descriptive, phenomenological case study has often helped cut a path toward scientific innovation.</p> <p> The case study is ideal for generalizing using the type of test that Karl Popper called “falsification.” If just one observation does not fit with the theory, it is considered not valid and must therefore be either revised or rejected. Deviant cases and the falsifications they entail are main sources of theory development, because they point to the development of new concepts, variables, and causal mecha­nisms.</p> <p> A single case study that is supported by other case studies is usually considered more dependable. When another case reaches the same conclusions, it confirms the findings of the first case. The question of <em>transferability</em> is perhaps more relevant than the question of generalizability. Does a case study of one school transfer to another school? The answer is that it depends on how similar the two schools are. </p> <p> So, back to HM. Students could say that one of the problems with HM is that although he sustained damage to the hippocampal regions, it is difficult to <em>transfer</em> the results of the case for at least two reasons: First, prior to the surgery he was suffering from epileptic seizures which could have theoretically caused memory loss; Second, HM was put on medications which could have resulted in memory loss. However, further case studies of individuals with hippocampal cell loss or damage have supported the findings, so in fact this study may be “generalized.”</p> <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <em>qualitative,paper 3,reliability,validity,credibility,case study,transferability</em></p>https://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/13794/generalizing-from-a-single-case#1347107040Free shots and distractionhttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/13764/free-shots-and-distraction
Wed, 05 Sep 2012 15:50:00 +0000<p> Ginelle Stutt sent me this great link. It is a study of the effect of visual distraction on basketball players when trying to make a free shot.</p> <p> <iframe allowfullscreen="" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/wkqowzcoonI" frameborder="0" height="315" width="420">&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br /&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;</iframe></p> <p> <img alt="" class="Right" src="http://www.https:thinkib.net/files/psychology/images/Basketball_game.jpg" height="200" width="147">After showing the video, I asked my first year students to note the problems with the study. There are several. This is what they came up with. Your students may find even more.</p> <div class="yellowBg"> <blockquote> <ul> <li> Only one person was tested.</li> <li> The hypothesis was not really tested. There was a lot of noise and one clown breathed down his back. This means that visual distraction alone was not tested.</li> <li> He should have worn ear plugs to only test visual stimulation.</li> <li> It could be argued that touching the player had an unfair influence on his free throws.</li> <li> If the base rate it 9, then this becomes the new 100%. So, if he decreased to 7 from the base rate, then the decrease was more like 22%.</li> <li> There should have been more throws. A score out of ten is rather limited.</li> <li> There should have been more tests with the same person to see if this was a reliable result.</li> <li> There was no motivation that he would have felt in a real game, so maybe this is not a really valid result.</li> </ul> </blockquote> </div> <p> Thank you, Ginelle. A great video clip to start a discussion of research. When students can see these problems themselves, it makes it easier to simply give them the psych vocabulary to explain the issues.</p> <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <em>sport,experiment,validity,evaluation,basketball</em></p>https://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/13764/free-shots-and-distraction#1346860200Vampires for abnormal psychhttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/13763/vampires-for-abnormal-psych
Thu, 30 Aug 2012 14:46:00 +0000<p> <img alt="" class="Right" src="http://www.https:thinkib.net/files/psychology/images/Vampire.jpg" height="200" width="133">There are many great things out there on the Internet, but one of my favorites is the National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science. They have quite a few case study exercises that are pretty much ready to go. The one that I used this year to start off my abnormal unit was <a href="http://sciencecases.lib.buffalo.edu/cs/collection/detail.asp?case_id=593&amp;id=593">the case study of Josie</a>. You can download the whole file which will give you the case, written out in great detail. Here is how I ended up using this case study with my own students.</p> <p> I first had the students read each section of the case study. After each section, I had them note which details they thought were important to diagnosis and why. I also had them considered which symptoms could be classified as affective, behavioural, cognitive or somatic.</p> <p> After we had read the first four sections, it was time to get out the laptops. I put them in three groups. Each group was assigned one of three disorders: porphyria, schizophrenia or borderline personality disorder. The goal was to work as a team to determine the best diagnosis. Each group had to present a quick overview of the disorder and why they thought that Josie may have the disorder. All groups had to make the argument for the diagnosis. I gave them about 30 minutes to use their laptops to do this.</p> <p> Then was the "diagnostic meeting." Students had to question each other about the diagnosis. They had to try to figure out why it may not be an appropriate diagnosis. In the end, they voted on what they felt was the most appropriate diagnosis.</p> <p> One of the things that I noticed is that students did not have search skills. For example, tingling limbs is a symptom that happens in borderline personality disorder, but the students said that this is a symptom that they could not account for. The students had not attempted to search "borderline personality disorder" and "tingling" or anything similar.</p> <p> In future, I would spend time talking to them about how to search online. This might make the activity more informed. A good activity to introduce the difficulties/complexity of diagnosis.</p> <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <em>Diagnosis,vampire,schizophrenia,borderline personality disorder,symptoms</em></p>https://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/13763/vampires-for-abnormal-psych#1346337960Speed dating revisionhttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/13505/speed-dating-revision
Tue, 21 Aug 2012 06:07:00 +0000]]>Speed dating revisionhttps://www.thinkib.net/cache/blog-thumbs/4/13505-1344946657-thinkib.jpghttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/13505/speed-dating-revision<p> <img alt="" class="Right" src="/files/psychology/images/speed_dating.jpg" title="Image credit: Sydney Speed Dating" height="200" width="301">Revision is something that should be happening constantly in the classroom over the two years of your course. It is important that students do not forget what they learned in the first few units as they cruise toward exams at the end of year 2. One way to do this is by getting them to work with classmates at the beginning of class.</p> <p> There are two ways that I do this. Sometimes, I want to review something very specific. For example, I want them to understand a memory model. To begin class, ask them all to turn to their "neighbor" and update him/her on this new "Working Memory Model." Their task is to then explain in as much detail as possible how the model works. The neighbor should ask clarifying questions in order to make sure that s/he understands what is being said. My job is to walk around the room and see if all is going well.</p> <p> The second, and admittedly more fun, option for students is to do a "speed dating revision."</p> <p> One way to do this is to have the desks set up for one-to-one "encounters", as shown in the photo above. At each table, one person has "the card." On this card is written a question or the name of a study. For example - 'What are the limitations of using a case study?" or "The Whitehall Study." Students are told that they have 2 minutes per table. The person with the card starts off with "talk to me about...." and then reveals what is on the card. The perspective "date" then has to talk to about it. If it is a total blank, then the cardholder can explain the concept to the obviously failed date prospect. If neither knows, then a bit of help from the teacher may be necessary. </p> <p> After two minutes, students swich tables until they have done the revision round. </p> <p> It is a good idea to break students in half the first time you do it and to keep these teams. Next time, those who were cardholders should be the prospective dates.</p> <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <em>revision</em></p>https://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/13505/speed-dating-revision#1345529220Chocolate command termshttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/13504/chocolate-command-terms
Tue, 14 Aug 2012 05:57:00 +0000]]>Chocolate command termshttps://www.thinkib.net/cache/blog-thumbs/4/13504-1344945925-thinkib.jpghttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/13504/chocolate-command-terms<p> <img alt="" class="Right" src="/files/psychology/images/Chocolate.jpg" title="Image credit: Aka" height="200" width="257">When visiting ESF schools in Hong Kong, Syrita Nicholas gave me the following great idea for helping students to better understand the command terms.</p> <p> She has here students all bring in different types of chocolate to share with the class. Then she gets her students to use the command terms to talk about the chocolate. In other words:</p> <div class="greenBg"> <div class="threecolumn"> <ul class="branded"> <li> Define</li> <li> Describe</li> <li> Analyse</li> <li> Distinguish</li> <li> Explain</li> <li> Compare</li> <li> Contrast</li> <li> Discuss</li> <li> Evaluate</li> <li> Examine</li> </ul> </div> </div> <p> Clearly there are a few command terms that don't work well - outline, to what extent, apply - but overall a fun activity which may get your students to realize that they really do know the differences between all of these terms. Or at least when they are served with chocolate.</p> <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <em>command terms,revision</em></p>https://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/13504/chocolate-command-terms#1344923820Home advantage at the Olympicshttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/13449/home-advantage-at-the-olympics
Sun, 12 Aug 2012 00:00:00 +0000<p><img alt="" class="Right" src="files/psychology/images/800px-Oliver_Turner_Glasgow_2011.jpg" style="width: 269px; height: 200px; float: left; border-width: 1px; border-style: solid;" title="Image Credit: Aviva International" />One of the most fascinating parts of this year&#39;s Summer Olympic Games has been the incredible performance of the UK team. The team earned the most medals since before the First World War. And it just so happens that the games were in London.....</p> <hr class="hidden" /> <div class="yellowBg"> <p>With this, one has to wonder if there may be more to their success than simple athletic ability. Could psychology have also played a role?</p> <p>There are clearly many factors that play a role in how well an athlete does on the day of the competition. There may also dispositional factors in the athlete which play a role, as well as situational factors ranging from the court or stadium itself to weather to the attitude of the crowd.</p> <hr class="hidden" /> <p>Take a look at the video below to see what the psychologists are saying about the British &quot;home court advantage.&quot;</p> <p><a href="psychology/page/13435/home-advantage-and-audience-effect">Then, click here</a> to see an activity which goes into more depth on the role of the &quot;audience effect.&quot;</p> <hr class="hidden" /><br /></div> <p><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/SyO8ggXEoLQ" width="450">&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br /&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;</iframe></p> <p><strong>Tags:</strong> <em>audience effect, home advantage, bias, sport, Olympics, confounding variable, motivation, extraneous</em></p>https://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/13449/home-advantage-at-the-olympics#1344729600Snowdon&#39;s Nun Studyhttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/12565/snowdons-nun-study
Wed, 04 Jul 2012 07:03:24 +0000]]>Snowdon&#39;s Nun Studyhttps://www.thinkib.net/cache/blog-thumbs/4/12565-1341396204-thinkib.jpghttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/12565/snowdons-nun-study<p> <img alt="" class="Right" src="/files/psychology/images/Rollerblading_nuns.jpg" style="width: 148px; height: 158px;" title="Image credit: April Sykorsky">Perhaps no study of Alzheimer’s disease is more intriguing that Snowdon’s Nun study. The study is a great example of a longitudinal, retrospective case study. The study could be used to look at the interaction of cognition and biological factors in memory. It could also be used as a good example of how a case study is used in the cognitive level of analysis.</p> <p> 678 members of the School Sisters of Notre Dame in the U.S. participated in the Nun Study, a longitudinal study of aging and Alzheimer&#39;s disease which began in 1986. The homogeneous life style of the nuns makes them an ideal study population. Participants in this study are nonsmokers, drink little if any alcohol, have the same marital status and reproductive history, have lived in similar housing, held similar jobs, and had similar access to preventive and medical care. This minimizes the extraneous variables that may confound other similar research</p> <p> Researchers accessed the convent archive to review documents collected during the lives of the nuns. Among the documents were autobiographical essays that had been written by the nuns upon joining the Sisterhood. It was found that an essay&#39;s lack of linguistic density (e.g., complexity, vivacity, fluency) was as a significant predictor of its author&#39;s risk for developing Alzheimer&#39;s disease in old age. The approximate mean age of the nuns at the time of writing was 22 years. Roughly 80% of nuns whose writing was measured as lacking in linguistic density went on to develop Alzheimer&#39;s disease and lesions on the brain in old age; meanwhile, of those whose writing was <em>not</em> lacking, only 10% later developed the disease.</p> <p> Snowdon believed that full development of the brain and cognitive abilities early in life, through education or other stimulation, may protect people from Alzheimer s disease and cognitive problems later. Educational differences, however, did not explain the relationship between low linguistic ability in early life and poor cognitive function later on. Psychologists have now developed an alternate theory -- that low linguistic ability in early life could be a subtle symptom of very early changes in the brain that ultimately lead to Alzheimer&#39;s disease.</p> <p> With Snowdon’s retirement from the project, the University of Minnesota has agreed to oversee the research. For more information on the future direction of the project, see the video clip below. For more information on the study, see Snowdon’s book, <em>Aging with Grace: What the Nun Study Teaches Us About Leading Longer, Healthier, and More Meaningful Live.</em></p> <p> <iframe allowfullscreen="" src="http://www.liveleak.com/ll_embed?f=6c4_1226747631" frameborder="0" height="360" width="480">&amp;amp;amp;lt;br /&amp;amp;amp;gt;</iframe></p><p><strong>Tags:</strong> <em>brain,memory,Alzheimers,research</em></p>https://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/12565/snowdons-nun-study#1341385404Understanding Milgramhttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/12524/understanding-milgram
Sun, 01 Jul 2012 12:27:50 +0000]]>Understanding Milgramhttps://www.thinkib.net/cache/blog-thumbs/4/12524-1341156470-thinkib.jpghttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/12524/understanding-milgram<p> <img alt="" class="right" src="/files/psychology/images/Milgram_Experiment.jpg" style="width: 170px; height: 216px;">It is now the end of the marking season. When thinking back on the exams that I have just marked, one thing stands out – teachers must be obsessed with Milgram. Sadly, Milgram was incorrectly used to answer the CLOA question on ethics (even though the study is representative of social psychology) and he was often used as an example of conformity research.</p> <p> It is commonly argued by students that, “Milgram explained how the Holocaust was able to happen.” As a person who has devoted a good part of his life to the study and teaching of the Holocaust, it makes me sad to see that students think that it is so easy to apply a study to explain such a complex historical event.</p> <p> It is important to remember what Milgram himself wrote about the differences between his study and the Holocaust:</p> <blockquote> <p> <em>The experiment is presented to our subjects in a way that stresses its positive human values: increase of knowledge about learning and memory processes. By contrast, the objectives that Nazi Germany pursued were themselves morally reprehensible, and were recognized as such by many Germans.</em></p> <p> <em>The maintenance of obedience in our subjects is highly dependent on the face-to-face nature of the social occasion and its attendant surveillance. The forms of obedience that occurred in Germany were in far greater degree dependent upon the internalization of authority – to resist Nazism was itself an act of heroism, not an inconsequential decision, and death was a possible penalty. Penalties and threats were forever around the corner, and the victims themselves had been thoroughly vilified and portrayed as being unworthy of life or human kindness. Finally, our subjects were told by authority that what they were doing to their victim might be temporarily painful but would cause no permanent damage, while those Germans directly involved with the annihilations knew that they were not only inflicting pain, but were destroying human life. So, in the final analysis, what happened in Germany between 1933 and 1945 can only be fully understood as the expression of a unique historical development that will never again be precisely replicated</em> (pp 176 – 177).</p> </blockquote> <p> For those who feel that they cannot teach the course without Milgram, here are some things to consider when looking at the study’s ability to be generalized to the Holocaust. You may want to ask your students to brainstorm the differences between the study and the actual historical event as a way to help them to see the problems with generalizing from laboratory research to the "real world."</p> <ol> <li> The study lacks mundane reality and ecological validity. </li> <li> The historical evidence on the spontaneity, initiative, enthusiasm and pride with which the Nazis degraded, tortured, and killed their victims is not compatible with the concept of obedience, and simply has no counterpart in the behavior that Milgram observed in his studies. (Fenigstein 1998, p 68)</li> <li> Historians have refuted Milgram’s theory of the agentic state. The theory implies that individuals “didn’t really know what they were doing” and were "simply following orders." There are, however, several examples of celebrations after the slaughters, photographs taken in which the soldiers posed with the dead, and examples of sadistic cruelty that exceed simply following orders.</li> <li> There is a widespread belief - based on statements at Nuremberg – that the Nazis had no choice but to obey orders. Historians have shown this is not the case (see Browning). The study masks the role of one’s personal choices and goals. Staub argues that the motivation to obey often comes from a desire to follow a leader, to be a good member of a group. Guided by shared cultural dispositions and the shared experience of difficult life conditions, people join rather than simply obey out of fear or respect. </li> <li> The study does not address the role of indoctrination. A long process of indoctrination is not possible within the course of an experiment. Many of the Nazi perpetrators were young men. They had been raised in a world in which Nazi values were the only moral norms they knew.</li> <li> The Jews had been dehumanized by propaganda. In the Milgram experiment the participants were led to believe that they could have been in the place of the learner. This was never part of the reality of the Holocaust.</li> <li> The study does not address the well documented “escalation of violence” that took place. In many ways, compliance techniques – such as the “foot in the door” – are a better explanation.</li> <li> The agentic state theory is unfalsifiable. This is not the hallmark of a high quality theory.</li> <li> Milgram does not explain effectively why certain authority figures command higher levels of obedience than others.</li> <li> Milgram does not effectively explain why some people find it easier to resist obedience than others. This may mean that dispositional factors do play a significant role in one’s behavior – which is not the message that usually comes from the Milgram study.</li> </ol> <p> This is just a start. There are several good books that can give you more information on this topic. I highly recommend the following:</p> <p> <em>Blass, Thomas (2000) <u>Obedience to Authority: Current perspectives on the Milgram Paradigm</u>. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publisher.</em></p> <p> <em>Browning, Christopher (1998). <u>Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland</u>. Harper Perennial. </em></p> <p> <em>Miller, Arthur G [ed] (2004). <u>The Social Psychology of Good and Evil</u>. The Guilford Press.</em></p> <p> <em>Newman, Leonard and Ralph Erber [eds]. (2002) <u>Understanding Genocide: The social psychology of the Holocaust</u>. </em></p> <p> <em>Staub, Ervin (2002). <u>The Roots of Evil</u>. Cambridge University Press.</em></p><p><strong>Tags:</strong> <em>obedience,compliance,Holocaust,ethics</em></p>https://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/12524/understanding-milgram#1341145670Evaluating Aschhttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/12511/evaluating-asch
Tue, 26 Jun 2012 06:31:47 +0000<h2> Developing Critical Thinking</h2> <p> On the May 2012 exam for Time Zone 2 there was the following essay question:</p> <p> <strong>Evaluate research on conformity.</strong></p> <p> Many students did an excellent job of describing studies like Asch, Moscovici &amp; Lage, Abrams and Sherif. However, many students scored very low in critical thinking. Why?</p> <p> Many students have learned a very formulaic way to demonstrate that they can analyze and/or evaluate research. Below are some of the examples of things that examiners see over and over again in student essays.</p> <ul> <li> The study was done in a lab, therefore it was artificial.</li> <li> The study was done in a lab, therefore it lacks ecological validity.</li> <li> This is an experiment, therefore it shows a cause and effect relationship.</li> <li> All extraneous variables were controlled.</li> <li> The study was unethical.</li> </ul> <p> These five comments were seen in many essays at the end of each paragraph which described a study, or they were stated one after the other in the final paragraph.</p> <p> The goal of critical thinking is not to just memorize the strategies and list them in the essays. The goal is for students to evaluate and/or analyze the specific studies which they are using as evidence to support their argument. So, what should the above responses look like in a paragraph that looks at the classic Asch paradigm?</p> <ul> <li> The task that the participants were asked to do, compare the lengths of lines out loud in front of a group of strangers that all disagreed with them, is highly artificial and does not represent a real life situation.</li> </ul> <ul> <li> The study was done in a laboratory setting. This means that the participants knew that they were being studied and this may have led to expectancy effects. In addition to the artificiality of the task, this makes the experiment less likely to predict what will happen outside of the laboratory, making it low in ecological validity.</li> </ul> <ul> <li> Because Asch manipulated an independent variable (the unanimity of the confederates) while measuring a dependent variable (whether the participant would conform), while attempting to keep other variables constant, a cause and effect relationship can be established.</li> </ul> <ul> <li> Asch used a standardized procedure in order to make sure that the situation was well controlled. (No experimenter can control ALL extraneous variables!)</li> </ul> <ul> <li> The study made use of deception. This is an important ethical consideration in the study. At the end of the study, Asch debriefed the participants at the end of the study and revealed the deception.</li> </ul><p><strong>Tags:</strong> <em>exam,critical thinking,conformity,socio-cultural,ethics</em></p>https://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/12511/evaluating-asch#1340692307Review: The Psychopath Testhttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/12502/review-the-psychopath-test
Mon, 18 Jun 2012 19:52:10 +0000]]>Review: The Psychopath Testhttps://www.thinkib.net/cache/blog-thumbs/4/12502-1340059930-thinkib.jpghttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/12502/review-the-psychopath-test<p> <img alt="" class="Left" src="/files/psychology/images/Psychopath%20test.jpg" height="243" width="159">Some psychology books are just fun to read. This is one of those books. The fact that it links to some of our learning objectives is just another boon!</p> <p> Jon Ronson is not a psychologist. He is a journalist who gets caught up in a story that involves a group of intellectuals around the world receiving copies of a hand-made text that is full of symbols and difficult to decipher information. His investigation starts by looking for the man who sent these books, but then leads to an exploration of what is "normalcy." His focus is on psychopaths and how they are diagnosed in the modern world. </p> <p> The text explores the difficulty of making a diagnosis, but it also examines the role of social norms on diagnosis. His text ends with a look at the trend in the USA to overdiagnose bipolar disorder in young children.</p> <p> This would be a good addition to your library collections as the topic is definitely attractive to students. In addition, it could be a good way to open a discussion on the definitions of normalcy and ethical considerations in diagnosis. Lots of good material for us as teachers to enrich our classroom discussions.</p><p><strong>Tags:</strong> <em>abnormal,aggression,diagnosis,book</em></p>https://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/12502/review-the-psychopath-test#1340049130Strengths of researchhttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/12404/strengths-of-research
Sat, 02 Jun 2012 08:08:39 +0000]]>Strengths of researchhttps://www.thinkib.net/cache/blog-thumbs/4/12404-1338635319-thinkib.jpghttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/12404/strengths-of-research<p> <img alt="" class="Center" src="/files/psychology/images/strength.jpg" style="width: 124px; height: 124px;" height="124" width="124"></p> <p> Students seem to do really well at discussing the limitations of studies, but when it comes to strengths, students appear to have difficulties. Many students write that the results of the research are its strengths. This is not really a valid response. Here are some ideas for strengths of studies</p> <ul> <li> Ecological validity – Is the study done in a naturalistic setting?</li> <li> Sample size - This one is rarely valid. However, in a study like the Whitehall study, this is a real strength of the study.</li> <li> Triangulation - Case studies often use method or researcher triangulation. This is a strength because then we know that it was not the method or research alone that led to the findings. This establishes a higher level of credibility of the results.</li> <li> Longitudinal – Shows consistency or change over time; it allows to rare behaviours that may not be observed in a short-term study.</li> <li> Methodology - experiment: establishes cause and effect</li> <li> Controls – for example, “matching participants” - in the Whitehall study, participants were matched for smoking, alcohol consumption and diet. Simply writing "the study was well controlled" is not a good response.</li> <li> Is the study supported by other research?</li> <li> What are the strengths of the method that was used? For example, experiments may allow us to establish a cause and effect relationship.</li> <li> Is the study prospective study? This means that valid data is available to begin the study, making it possible to draw better conclusions.</li> <li> Was the situation realistic? That is, did it have mundane reality?</li> </ul> <p> Comments about cross-cultural validity, gender equity and ethics are often weak descriptions of strengths, but in some cases they could be applied.</p><p><strong>Tags:</strong> <em>critical thinking,research,exam</em></p>https://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/12404/strengths-of-research#1338624519Stroke victimshttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/12300/stroke-victims
Sat, 26 May 2012 06:21:11 +0000]]>Stroke victimshttps://www.thinkib.net/cache/blog-thumbs/4/12300-1338024071-thinkib.jpghttps://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/12300/stroke-victims<p> <img alt="" class="Left" src="/files/psychology/images/stroke.jpg" style="width: 224px; height: 241px;">When starting off with localization of function and looking at case studies of people who have amnesia as a result of stroke, I spend some time introducing my students to the concept of strokes. This is something that all are vaguely familiar with, but which I think deserves a bit of time in the classroom. I teach them the difference between an ischemic stroke, where oxygen is restricted to some part of the brain, and a hemorraghic stroke, where a blood vessel bursts in the brain causing damage in the surrounding region of the aneurysm.</p> <p> There are several videos that are also helpful. Perhaps one of the most moving is the story of Sarah Scott - a teenage girl who has Broca&#39;s aphasia. Her personal story is documented online. Here she is <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aplTvEQ6ew&amp;feature=relmfu">soon after her stroke</a>. And then her she is <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zNKz7YoUao">18 months later</a>.</p> <p> There are also classic examples of aphasia studies. Here is one of <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2IiMEbMnPM">Broca&#39;s aphasia</a> and one of <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKTdMV6cOZw&amp;feature=related">Wernicke&#39;s aphasia</a>. You may also want to show them this Ted Talks by <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight.html">Jill Bolte Taylor&#39;s personal story</a> of having a stroke and recovering.</p><p><strong>Tags:</strong> <em>biological,cognitive,brain,stroke,localization</em></p>https://www.thinkib.net/psychology/blog/12300/stroke-victims#1338013271